Session details

Date: Thursday, October 22, 2026
Time: 12–1 PM
Room: KC Jazz Incubator, American Jazz Museum
Topic: What is jazz?

See the next session

How it works

Each session is an hour of active listening. The room stays quiet while the records play, with breaks to talk through the musical, historical, and social context of what we heard. Houston Gonzales, the museum's education programs manager, leads the listening and the discussion.

The month's albums

Five of the six records mark October birthdays: Larry Young (October 7), Thelonious Monk (October 10), Art Tatum and Ray Brown (October 13), and Dizzy Gillespie (October 21). Ray Brown was born in 1926, so October 13, 2026, marks his centennial.

  • Groovin' High, Dizzy Gillespie (recorded 1945–1947)
  • Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1, Thelonious Monk (recorded 1947–1948)
  • The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Art Tatum (recorded 1953–1955)
  • Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis Quintet (recorded 1956)
  • Unity, Larry Young (recorded 1965)
  • This One's for Blanton!, Duke Ellington & Ray Brown (recorded 1972)

Playlists

Festive Jazz for October