Musical Echoes Across the Atlantic

This three-part workshop traces the musical and cultural conversation between Senegal, West Africa more broadly, and the American musical traditions that grew out of the African diaspora. It is designed not as a technical jazz curriculum but as a cultural history of musical circulation: how sound, rhythm, voice, and meaning travelled across the Atlantic, were transformed, and continue to flow back and forth today. Each session lasts two hours and combines a visual presentation with curated audio examples.

Jazz Generations Initiative holds the rare and valuable mandate of connecting musical worlds, cultures, and generations through jazz and the wider musical conversation it belongs to. This workshop directly serves that mission. It places jazz in the long arc of an Atlantic conversation that begins centuries before recording technology and continues, vividly, in the music of today. For JGI's eclectic audience, the workshop offers a framework that turns listening into a way of seeing history, community, and connection.

The Three Sessions at a Glance

Session 1:

Roots West Africa and Senegal: cultures, ethnic mosaic, the griot institution, Sufi spirituality, instruments, and the bridge to the diaspora via Senghor and Negritude.

Session 2:

Crossing The Middle Passage and what Survived: Musical retentions, Congo Square, work songs, field hollers, spirituals, ring shouts, the banjo lineage, and the rise of blues, gospel, and early jazz.

Session 3:

Echoes Modern Circulations across the Black Atlantic: Afro-Louisiana, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Brazilian developments; jazz musicians who turned to Africa; the contemporary Senegalese return; and a critical reflection on how this history is told.