In the Jazz Tradition Archives

In October 2017, Duke Performances staged an elaborate one-hundredth birthday party for Thelonious Monk. For ten days, many of jazz’s greatest musicians filled the arts venue and former warehouse Durham Fruit & Produce with the sounds of Monk’s songbook. Durham brimmed with “moments when the spirit of Monk’s piano playing got called up and shocked back to life in the air of the present day,” according to a rave review of the festival in The New York Times.

This season, Duke Performances returns to the historic warehouse for another extended musical meditation, In the Jazz Tradition, an eight-day series featuring some of the most important women vocalists in jazz today. In recent years, a legion of jazz singers has drawn inspiration from flashpoints in race relations and the struggle for gender equality, commanding a renewed sense of urgency with their music and reaffirming the relevance and popular appeal of jazz itself. Durham visual artist Stacy Lynn Waddell — who, much like the series’ singers, explores how traditional forms can express contemporary themes — will transform the space, setting the scene for a timely update on familiar jazz traditions.

In the Jazz Tradition

Past In the Jazz Tradition events

Branford Marsalis & Joey Calderazzo

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
+ Lucinda Williams

In the Jazz Tradition: Kate McGarry

In the Jazz Tradition: René Marie

In the Jazz Tradition: NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble

In the Jazz Tradition: Jazzmeia Horn

‘In the Jazz Tradition’ Roundtable Discussion

In the Jazz Tradition: Catherine Russell

In the Jazz Tradition: Nellie McKay

In the Jazz Tradition: Cécile McLorin Salvant with Sullivan Fortner