The Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University of Brasov is pleased to announce the release of Chamber Jazz: What is this music?. The book is an extension of the Chamber Jazz@Universitatea Transilvania concert series, a unique initiative in the landscape of higher education in Romania. Since 2016, in a program curated by Romanian-American pianist Lucian Ban, over 100 renowned jazz musicians and improvisers from Europe, the United States and Romania have performed at the University's Multicultural Center in various chamber ensembles, followed by post-concert talks on the art and practice of contemporary jazz, moderated by the Center's director and Dean of the Faculty of Letters, writer Adrian Lăcătuș.
Born out of a desire to make the experience of our conversations with musicians accessible to the general public, the book also offers a comprehensive view of jazz practice today and its sources of creativity, be they social life, nature, the art of others or, above all, the dialogue that unfolds spontaneously on stage.Chamber Jazz: what is this music? is the first editorial project in Romania to be born out of a university concert programme, and is aimed at both the general public, as well as researchers looking into jazz and improvised music in the 21st century.
Edited by Adrian Lăcătuș, Lucian Ban and Maria Ghiurțu, the book is published by Transilvania University in Brasov in two versions – in Romanian and English – and is comprised of 24 conversations with musicians such as Abraham Burton, Evan Parker, Mircea Tiberian, John Surman, Albrecht Maurer, Alex Harding, Mat Maneri, George Dumitriu, Amina Claudine Myers, etc. accompanied by four essays by the curator of the series, Lucian Ban, American violist Mat Maneri and writer Adrian Lăcătuș, director of the Multicultural Centre.
The book launch will take place on the occasion of the Mat Maneri ASH Quartet concerts with Mat Maneri, Lucian Ban, Randy Peterson and Brad Jones, one of today's leading avant-garde jazz groups, on 3 June in Brasov at the Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University and on 5 June in Cluj-Napoca at Insomnia, with the participation of Adrian Lăcătuș, jazz critic Virgil Mihaiu and writer Horea Poenar.