Famous Jazz Critic Stanley Crouch Lectures at the University of New Orleans

Famous jazz critic Stanley Crouch gives a free lecture this week at the University of New Orleans courtesy of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation.

Crouch, a music and cultural critic best known for his jazz criticism, will give a lecture on the life and works of jazz genius and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, known in the jazz world as Bird. Music journalist Tom Piazza will moderate.

The lecture is part of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation's Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture Series, named for a jazz scholar, playwright, oral historian, journalist and cultural activist who helped to found the Foundation and served as its executive director from 1987 to 1990.

The Foundation describes the series in promotional literature as "a means to engage artists and thinkers in an intellectual dialogue on issues of culture and commerce. Since its beginnings, the series has delved into the history of New Orleans music and the ways its artists have responded to the world around them."

Crouch, an African-American poet, syndicated columnist, novelist and biographer, is a MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center and National Book Award nominee.

The veteran jazz spent years researching his recently published book Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker and critics say the two-volume provides invaluable insights to bebop legend Charlie Parker's achievement.