the dementia diaries VIII

10/11/23

We had lots of guest artists at FAU. Not so many in the Music Department, but over the humanities it was a considerable number. One example was an editor of Le Monde, a guest of the language department. I went to his talk because we had been introduced and he told me he was a jazz fan. Of course, the audience was mainly language faculty. After the talk he asked for questions. Most were inane academic questions, but one very feminist language professor asked, “I have heard jazz improvisation is a homoerotic activity, your thoughts?” Everyone knew I was a jazz professor, all eyes turned to me after the question!

Our guest, seizing the opportunity, said “perhaps the professor of jazz would like to comment?” If I was dishonest, I would say I came up with a snappy retort, but I do not remember anything past that point. If asked again I would say not in my experience… if it was there would be a lot more of us doing it.

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The end of my tenure at FAU started a lot sooner than I thought. I had graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in music composition and had done sufficiently well as a teaching assistant to get a very high recommendation. As a result, I started as an instructor in 1982 at FAU. The program I had graduated from, The University of Northern Colorado, although not offering a degree in jazz, had a very strong reputation for great jazz groups, and I was fortunate to have been accepted. My fantasy was swooping down at FAU and rescuing the flailing program, turning it…