Join us on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM for an enjoyable conversation with Larry Tye author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie Transformed America as well as a special performance by Young Musicians Unite Jazz Ensemble. Larry will be in conversation with Zach Larmer, Jazz musician, COO of YMU, and three time grammy award winner.
The Jazzmen looks mainly at these three maestros’ lives off the bandstand, and how they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights revolution. It also explores the Black-Jewish alliance of old— one where each of these African-American bandleaders had a Jewish manager and bandmates —and how that might offer a model for today.
Larry Tye is a former reporter at The Boston Globe, off now writing books and running a Boston-based fellowship program for health journalists. The Jazzmen is his ninth book, with others including Home Lands, the upbeat tale of a thriving Jewish diaspora; Superman, the biography of America’s longest-lasting (Jewish) hero; and Bobby Kennedy, which looks at RFK’s transformation from Joe McCarthy’s protege to a liberal icon.
Young Musicians Unite, to empower youth, provides turnkey music education solutions for Title 1 schools across Miami-Dade County. YMU equips schools with trained instructors, lesson plans, instruments and all the necessary resources for vibrant music classes.
Zach Larmer is an internationally acclaimed jazz musician and educator. As a performer and composer, Zach has received three GRAMMY awards and embarked on numerous world tours. He has had the chance to work alongside artists such as Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and the Steve Miller Band.