Guthrie P. Ramsey
Ramsey is a scholar, composer, performer, librettist, documentary filmmaker, curator, and activist specializing in African American musics. His award-winning Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2004) expanded musicology's engagement with race to new levels of critical sophistication by combining ethnomemoir and musical analysis. The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop (2013) further extends these accomplishments, along with a book-in-progress on the history of African American musics. Ramsey has also co-curated shows for the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Museum of Modern Art. A jazz pianist/bandleader, he is currently building a community arts center in Philadelphia.