Class dates: Wednesdays, Feb 11, 18, 25, March 4, 11 (5 weeks)
Class time: 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: Online (via Zoom)
Josephine Baker had a colossal impact on French art, fashion and the emergence of jazz in Europe between the world wars when Paris was an outpost of the Harlem Renaissance for extraordinary African American entertainers. Other stunning Black divas of Paris were singer and dancer Adelaide Hall, the glamourous “Queen of the Trumpet” Valaida Snow and legendary singer and cabaret operator Ida “Bricktop” Smith. Numerous colorful but now forgotten African American expatriate instrumentalists central to early jazz in Europe are profiled.
Optional Reading: Josephine Baker’s Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom , Hanna Diamond (Yale University Press, 2025); Better Times Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris and a Nazi Prison Camp , Travis Atria (Chicago Review Press, 2020)
Instructor: Dave Radlauer has been recounting tales of early Jazz and Swing in print, online and on the radio for 40 years, garnering six broadcast awards. His chronicles of early Jazz and massive website offer fresh perspectives on Jazz and Swing at www.JAZZHOTBigstep.com. He taught Osher Institute zoom-format classes for UC Berkeley, Dominican University, San Francisco State University and UCLA, 2022-25. Other professional qualifications include authoring 200 articles, webpages and columns online and in print. For Stanford Libraries, he has written interpretive articles and donated a unique jazz collection.
He has published: The San Francisco Cricket, San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation (print & online), 1998-2014; The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation, Charles M. Huggins Project, The Stanford Libraries, 2017 https://exhibits.stanford.edu/sftjf/feature/the-east-bay-sound ; Dagogo (audio enthusiast online magazine), 2018-2020 https://www.dagogo.com/category/the-columns/jazzed-up ; The Syncopated Times (online and print monthly), 2019-2024 https://syncopatedtimes.com/the-legend-is-true ; Just Jazz Magazine (print-only British Jazz publication), 2020-2023
