A History of Philly Jazz, Pop, Rock & Soul Music

Code: MT22003

Dates: October 22 - November 19, 2019

Meets: 7:15 PM to 8:45 PM

Sessions: 4

Location: Lower Merion High School

Course Fee: $82.00

Sorry, we are no longer accepting registrations for this course. Please contact our office to find out if it will be rescheduled, or if alternative classes are available.

This class explores the history of several musical genres for which Philadelphia is world-renowned: popular music, jazz, rock and roll, and soul. Using archival images, photographs, and audio examples, the class traces the evolution of these genres in Philadelphia and how the city played a key role in their development. The class highlights how Philadelphia has been at the forefront of many significant developments in American music—from the ground-breaking jazz innovations of Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, to the enormous popularity of the TV show American Bandstand in the 1950s and 1960s, to the enduring Philly soul style of the 1970s.
Fee: $82.00
You could save $14.00 on this course by becoming a member of MLSN Membership

Lower Merion High School

315 E Montgomery Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
Click here to visit their site

Jack McCarthy

Jack McCarthy is a longtime Philadelphia archivist and historian who has held leadership positions at several area historical organizations and directed numerous archives and public history projects. Jack is particularly noted for his work in Philadelphia music history. He has a master’s degree in music history from West Chester University and regularly writes, lectures, and gives tours on Philadelphia music. He serves as consulting archivist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Mann Music Center. For the Orchestra, he has managed the historical components of several major festivals: the 2012-2013 Leopold Stokowski Centennial, 2017 Sergei Rachmaninoff Festival, and 2018 Leopold Stokowski/Albert Barnes Festival. Jack served as director of the 2018-2019 project, Documenting and Interpreting the Philly Jazz Legacy, funded by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, and he co-produced, gave several presentations, and curated the accompanying exhibit for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s 2016 multi-part series Memories and Melodies: A Journey Through Philadelphia’s Musical Legacy. He served as consulting archivist for several Philadelphia music documentaries: the 2014 radio documentary Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio; the 2018 film biography Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me; and the (in-production) film Beethoven in Beijing, which focuses on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s history in China. He also periodically gives two walking tours: Exploring the Philly Jazz Legacy and Lost Sites and Sounds of Early Philadelphia Music. Jack writes on Philadelphia music for the popular online daily magazine Hidden City Philadelphia and the scholarly, peer-reviewed online resource, Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Humanities at Rutgers University-Camden. For the latter he has written articles on Philadelphia jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, doo wop, soul music, gospel, DJs, and opera and opera houses, as well as a series of articles on iconic Philadelphia popular songs. He was recruited by the Oxford African American Studies Center to write the article Philadelphia Soul Music, which was published on the Center’s website in 2018. He wrote two articles on Philadelphia gospel music for radio station WXPN’s 2019 documentary project, Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul.

Jacksnotes88@verizon.net

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