The Jazz Century

Along with the cinema and rock, jazz is one of the most important artistic events of the 20th century. This musical hybrid that emerged in the early years of the last century has run the century through, marking every aspect of world culture with its sounds and rhythms.

“The Jazz Century” presents a chronological account of relations between jazz and the arts throughout the 20th century. It shows us how the sound of jazz has nuanced all the other arts, from painting to photography and from the cinema to literature, not forgetting graphic design and cartoons.

The exhibition is organized chronologically along a timeline off which open many smaller independent exhibitions that showcase relations between jazz and other artistic disciplines, thereby explaining the history of the century using music as a leading thread.

1. Before 1917

2. The jazz age in the US 1917-1930

3. Harlem Renaissance 1917-1936

4. Wild years in Europe 1917-1930

5. The swing era 1930-1939

6. Wartime 1939-1945

7. Bebop 1945-1960 (including a section devoted to Barcelona)

8. West Coast jazz 1953-1961

9. The free revolution 1960-1980

10. Contemporaries 1980-2002

The exhibition, occupying a surface area of 1200 m², presents over 1000 exhibits, including artworks (150), audiovisuals (80), photographs (100), scores (100), album covers (200), and miscellaneous documentation, including books, magazines, programmes, posters and objects.

To complement the exhibition, various musical activities have been organized: an opening concert in La Pedrera on 28 July, with upcoming musicians offering a reinterpretation of the history of jazz; a cycle of jam sessions with musicians from different backgrounds and generations every Thursday in September and October at the CCCB, and a jazz marathon on 19 September, also at the CCCB, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Associació de Músics de Jazz i Música Moderna de Catalunya. The CCCB’s cycle of cinema al fresco, Gandules’09, will be screening various short films and two of the most memorable films to have dealt with jazz: Let’s Get Lost by Bruce Weber and Thelonius Monk: Straight No Chaser, by Charlotte Zwerin.