Nick Spitzer at Penn Institute for Urban Research 10th Anniversary Event
Penn IUR Sound and the City Seminar Series
City Soundscapes: Music, Words and Identities in Urban America
On February 27, 2014, Nick Spitzer, producer of public radio’s American Routes and professor of American studies and anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, was on hand at the Penn Institute for Urban Research to discuss the intersection of cities, music and public culture. With a line-up of special guests, Spitzer explored how music and musicians express Philadelphia’s cultural identities. Featured speakers and performers included: Jimmy Heath, NEA Jazz Master saxophonist and leader of Philadelphia’s Heath Brothers; Sam Reed, jazz saxophonist and bandleader at the Uptown Theater in the ‘50s and ‘60s; the Budesa Brothers with Lucky Thompson, organ trio; Elaine Hoffman Watts and Susan Watts, mother-daughter, trumpet-drum klezmer duo; Frankie and the Fashions, 4 part, doo-wop harmony group; and introductory remarks by Kathy Peiss, the Roy and Jeanette Nichols Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania. American Routes is heard in the Philadelphia area on WHYY- 90.9 FM, 3 PM Saturday, 6 PM Sunday. Made possible with a grant from the Office of the Provost’s Year of Sound and co-sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences’ Urban Studies Program.