Join us on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM for an enjoyable conversation with Larry Tye author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Elling­ton, Louis Arm­strong and Count Basie Trans­formed America as well as a special performance by Young Musicians Unite Jazz Ensemble.  Larry will be in conversation with Zach Larmer, Jazz musician, COO of YMU, and three time grammy award winner.

The Jazzmen looks main­ly at these three mae­stros’ lives off the band­stand, and how they wrote the sound­track for the civ­il rights rev­o­lu­tion. It also explores the Black-Jew­ish alliance of old— one where each of these African-Amer­i­can band­lead­ers had a Jew­ish man­ag­er and band­mates —and how that might offer a mod­el for today.

Lar­ry Tye is a for­mer reporter at The Boston Globe, off now writ­ing books and run­ning a Boston-based fel­low­ship pro­gram for health jour­nal­ists. The Jazzmen is his ninth book, with oth­ers includ­ing Home Lands, the upbeat tale of a thriv­ing Jew­ish dias­po­ra; Super­man, the biog­ra­phy of America’s longest-last­ing (Jew­ish) hero; and Bob­by Kennedy, which looks at RFK’s trans­for­ma­tion from Joe McCarthy’s pro­tege to a lib­er­al icon.

Young Musicians Unite, to empower youth, provides turnkey music education solutions for Title 1 schools across Miami-Dade County. YMU equips schools with trained instructors, lesson plans, instruments and all the necessary resources for vibrant music classes.

Zach Larmer is an internationally acclaimed jazz musician and educator. As a performer and composer, Zach has received three GRAMMY awards and embarked on numerous world tours. He has had the chance to work alongside artists such as Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and the Steve Miller Band.