Educational Jazz Talks

Educational talks led by Jazz historians and educators providing historical context and information on the jazz music we love but don’t always know the context/history behind. Usually hosted at and in collaboration with the Healdsburg Library.

2026

Sunday, May 3, 6:30 pm – An Artist talk on on the early life and career of pianist Mary Lou Williams, from her time growing up in Pittsburgh, to moving to Kansas City and writing and eventually playing with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy, and then heading to New York City where she engaged in both mentoring to many of the up and coming jazz greats of the 40s New York Scene to running humanitarian organizations for musicians. After the talk, you may be encouraged to attend the Adam Lee-Morgan Jazz Orchestra’s performance of the big band works of Mary Lou Williams at the Verdi Club in San Francisco.

Artist Talk by Adam Lee-Morgan

Adam Lee-Morgan is a Ph.D. candidate in Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and holds a Master’s degree in Music Education from New York University. He is the band director at Chatham University and teaches wind instruments at the Afro-American Music Institute in Pittsburgh. Previously he was a high school band director in Los Angeles and New York. As a performer he leads the Adam Lee-Morgan Jazz Orchestra, a big band; and Adam’s Aces, a smaller group. He previously was the founder and leader of the LA Swing Barons, a big band based in Los Angeles that focused on the Kansas City style of big band jazz; he also founded and led the Beijing Big Band in Beijing, China, the first of its kind in China since the 1930s. He is also an avid Lindy Hopper and is involved deeply in the swing dance community both locally, nationally, and internationally.