Music Colloquium Series: Cisco Bradley (Pratt Institute) | Department of Music

📅 Date: Friday, April 17, 2026
🕒 Start Time: 4:00 PM
📍 Location: Harkness Chapel, Classroom
👥 Who: Free | Open to the public

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Our weekly Friday colloquia showcase current research by distinguished visiting scholars alongside our own faculty and graduate students in musicology, historical performance practice, and music education. A brief reception follows each talk to keep the conversation going. All are welcome!

About The Talk

"New Methods for Tracing the African Roots of Blues and Jazz"

Sponsored by the Center for Popular Music Studies

In this lecture, Cisco Bradley will discuss new methods he has developed for researching the oral transmission of African music in the U.S. from the 17th century to the upwelling of blues, jazz, and other musical forms as part of the Black musical renaissance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using oral history, extensive genealogical research, and migration data, Prof. Bradley has built a comprehensive new database that examines American musical roots with a new level of detail.

About The Speaker

Cisco Bradley is professor of history at the Pratt Institute and is an author and award-winning film director. His scholarship focuses on the history of the music of the African diaspora, the Great Migration, and oral history. He is the author of four books, including I Hear Freedom: The Great Migration, Free Jazz, and Black Power (Columbia University Press, 2026), The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront (Duke University Press, 2023), and Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (Duke University Press, 2021). His first documentary film, Take Me to Fendika (2024), tells the story of world-renowned dancer, Melaku Belay, and the Fendika arts community in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which won best documentary at Cannes FIFI.

Venue Information

Harkness Classroom, located inside Harkness Chapel, serves as both a lecture hall for large classes and a backstage area during events. It is also the meeting location for the CWRU Music Colloquium Series.

Health + Safety
The health and well-being of our community is important to us as we gather for campus events. University Health and Counseling Services provides up-to-date guidance and resources to help support a safe campus experience. For life-threatening emergencies, please call CWRU Public Safety immediately at 216.368.3333.