Mark Laver, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Improvisation, Community and Social Practice | Improvisation, communaute, et pratiques sociales, University of Guelph

Public Lecture: “Freedom of Choice: Jazz, Neoliberalism, and The Lincoln Center”

This talk explores Jazz as a uniquely American cultural practice that is used in support of nationalistic discourses of neoliberal democracy and freedom.  The opening of a new jazz palace in Doha, Qatar under the Jazz at the Lincoln Center (J@LC) program and Starwood Hotels (the first of four proposed for the Middle East and Asia) is discussed from the persepctive of free market economics and jazz-based American cultural imperialism.