This page is referenced by:

• 1 2021-05-11T13:41:49+00:00 Right Before Rock 5 George Blake (Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities) plain 2021-05-17T22:04:51+00:00

  George Blake (Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities)

  Digital Scholarship Grant Recipient 2020-2021

  
  Blake, a postdoctoral scholar in the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, will use ArcGIS digital mapping tools and digitized African American newspapers to trace the touring schedules of several musicians who performed at the Moondog Coronation Ball, a 1952 concert in Cleveland that is widely accepted as the first major rock and roll concert. His project plots geospatial data of venues in different cities in the days leading up to the concert, illuminating the context of African American neighborhoods supporting the musicians. 
• 1 2022-02-02T20:13:03+00:00 Cleveland Swings: The Rise and Fall of Jazz at University Circle 1950-1970 5 George Blake (SAGES) plain 2022-02-02T20:23:43+00:00

  George Blake (SAGES)

  2021–2022 Freedman Faculty Fellow

  George Blake (PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara) studies music and urban life. Prior to working as a teaching fellow in SAGES, he was the Postdoctoral Scholar in the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at CWRU. He also taught a range of classes in the Department of Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara pertaining to geography and cultural production. His SAGES offerings include a USEM on digitally mapping musical Cleveland, a USEM on music and labor and an FSEM on art, culture and the city in the context of globalization. His Freedman Fellows project explores the hidden histories of jazz in Cleveland's "second downtown."
  
  Although it is widely known that "Cleveland rocks," the aim of this project is to show that "Cleveland swings." The rich history of jazz in the city is not widely understood, but it is extensive. In the project, I will map the history of Cleveland's jazz venues - with a particular focus in the University Circle area - using ArcGIS. By mapping venues, this project seeks to illuminate a lost musical landscape. It also seeks to show how the jazz scene reached its peak in the 1950s and declined into the late 1960s. Additionally, the project seeks to digitize newspaper articles and other documentation that points to the jazz cultural heritage of the city, as well as on the campus of CWRU, and provide textured contextual understanding to Cleveland's shifting musical landscape.