Fall Lectures

October 17 – The truth and the fake: History as a weapon
The outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine was years in the making. Nobody believed it would ever happen, yet both sides have long been getting ready for the possibility. When Vladimir Putin gave the order of attack on 24 February 2022, memorial battles had been raging for years. A battle Eastern European countries could relate to all too well.

October 24 – Russia: a policy of violence?
The current conflict in Ukraine brought back images of horrors and violence against civilians, not seen in Europe since the wars of the 20^th century; and particularly felt in Central and Eastern Europe. Are they specifically Russian? And how did they shape Eastern Europe’s response to the Russian unprovoked invasion of Ukraine?

October 31 – In the shadow of Moscow. 
At the end of WW2, the Soviet Union spread its authority over the whole of Eastern Europe, both through the presence of its armed forces and the influence of its ideology. To fully understand Moscow’s policy towards Eastern Europe, we must bear in mind two key principles: first, since 1917 and, even more so, since the German invasion of June 1941, the Soviet Union has considered itself under the constant threat of Western capitalist states; second, as the first socialist state and founder of international communism, the masters of the Kremlin sought to spread their ideology worldwide, starting with Eastern Europe. A look at the forced partnership imposed by Moscow to Eastern Europe and its long term consequences.

November 7 – Eastern Europe, the collapse of the communist regimes and the difficult transition to democracy. 
When the communist regimes  collapsed in 1989, the peoples of Eastern Europe, once again free to determine their future, looked towards the Economic European Community (soon to be renamed European Union) to find solutions to all their problems.  Unfortunately, their transition to democracy, coupled with the end of planned economies, proved painful. A two-tiered Europe was born. It remained a reality until the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

November 14 – Europe: towards a common defense policy?
Since the Cold War, the Europeans have desperately negotiated the terms of a common defense policy, but without much success. The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the dynamic altogether. Beyond the renewal of NATO, can Europe achieve at last its long-term goal: to defend itself? And what role are Eastern European countries playing?

November 21 – NATO and Russia:
The era of continental coordination and partnership, which began in the late 1990s, is over. The war in Ukraine led NATO to consider Russia as “the most important and most direct threat” to European security. As for the Russian authorities, they have claimed, repeatedly since the summer of 2022, that NATO is, for all intents and purposes, at war against Russia. A look at three decades of a tumultuous relationship, which has led to the renewed tensions between NATO, the world’s largest military alliance, and Russia.

November 28 – Poland: a new centre of gravity in Eastern Europe. 
As Russia re-emerged as a significant threat to European security, Poland, together with other Eastern European countries, is bound to become the new centre of gravity in Europe, while benefiting geopolitically from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.  A look at the difficult Russo-Polish relations since the 19th century and why Poland can become a major actor in Central and Eastern Europe.

December 5 – NATO: what perspectives for the future? and conclusion.
In the end NATO proved neither “obsolete” (Donald Trump, 2017) nor “brain-dead” (Emmanuel Macron, 2019). The so-called Russian “special military operation” against Ukraine and the transformation of a high intensity war gave NATO a new lease on life, not to mention fresh perspectives. What are they, and what role for Eastern European countries?

Olivier Courteaux received his B.A. in history, M.A. in war and conflict studies and Ph.D. in contemporary international relations from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He has lectured at various Canadian universities, including Ryerson and the Royal Military College of Canada.

He is the author of The War on Terror: The Canadian Dilemma (2009), Canada Between Vichy and Free France, 1940-1945 (2013) and Four days that Rocked Québec (2017) on Charles de Gaulle’s famous 1967 “Vive le Québec Libre.” He is currently working on his latest book, The Empress Eugenie and Egypt, a French Passion.

Many of us will have been part of LLM’s enthusiastic audiences when Dr. Courteaux presented his fascinating lecture series on Propaganda in 2021 and China last year. LLM is looking forward to having him back this fall to present Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

October 12 – From Africa to the New World
We start by considering some of the musical and cultural origins of jazz, from the West African jungle and savannah to the scourge of slavery and some African-American idioms of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including cakewalks, ragtime and blues. We’ll also touch on the white marching band and minstrel traditions that predated and influenced early jazz.

October 19 – New Orleans, The Cradle of Jazz
The unique situation of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century – its race politics, its gumbo of cultures – gave rise to the new music called “jass.” The release of the first recordings of jazz in 1917 caused a worldwide sensation. We’ll look in detail at some classic recordings of the era to understand the exciting New Orleans style, and finish with an overview of classic New Orleans jazz in present-day Toronto.

October 26 – The Twenties: the “Jazz Age”
The newfound popularity of jazz was received with suspicion by some and welcomed by others. While Paul Whiteman’s well-meaning vow to “make a lady out of jazz” has often been criticized, he brought jazz to the concert hall in 1924. Meanwhile, innovators like Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington were creating an artful language out of jazz, transforming popular music in the process.

November 2 – The Swing Era
The challenges of creating jazz for large dance bands were brilliantly answered by early pioneers like Art Hickman and Fletcher Henderson, and by the 1930s Benny Goodman (who hired Henderson as a staff arranger), Glenn Miller and Count Basie were reaching new heights of popularity playing for throngs of young dancers and listeners. Social dances like the Lindy Hop and the jitterbug expressed the spirit of the time. Swing remains popular today, and we will conclude this lecture with a glance to the present-day Toronto swing scene.

November 9 – The Jazz Singers
While Al Jolson incorporated jazz-like phrasing into his vaudeville-styled singing as early as 1913, it was Louis Armstrong’s inspired improvisations and Bing Crosby’s jazz-influenced “cool” crooning style that defined jazz singing in the 1920s. The jazz singers of the 1930s and 1940s like Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald built upon these foundations.

November 16 – Bebop
The popularity of big-band swing created a great deal of employment for young musicians during the years between the wars. As these musicians began to expand the musical parameters of jazz, a “jam session” culture began to arise. The technically brilliant, harmonically complex bebop style emerged in the early 1940s, led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. As swing declined in popularity, bebop rose to become the mainstream of jazz, albeit with a decidedly “art music” self-image. We’ll look at some of the implications of jazz’s shift from entertainment to art.

November 23 – Cool
At the same time that bebop was being forged in New York nightclubs, a newly refined jazz style later to be called “cool jazz” was emerging. As white musicians, many from California, adopted the complexities of the bebop language, they brought their own interest in composed sections, the use of orchestral instruments like French horn, and a generally refined approach to jazz. The result was some of the most commercially successful “pure jazz” of the century, with artists like Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck creating masterworks within the new long-playing album record format.

November 30 – Hard Bop
Some of the most exciting jazz of the 1950s and 1960s came out of the “hard bop” style, another extension of bebop that, partly in reaction to cool jazz, brought earthy black styles like blues and gospel into the mix. Miles Davis (who innovated in several jazz styles), John Coltrane and Charles Mingus were some of the leaders in the hard bop movement.

Dr. Mike Daley is a freelance popular music history lecturer around Toronto. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology and has published widely on a variety of musical subjects.

Mike’s well-received lectures on the Beatles, Elvis, jazz, folk music and many more have gained him a strong following in the GTA. Mike also offers video lecture series on his website, mikedaleymusic.com, and is currently writing a history of live music in the Yorkville coffee house district of Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mike was the first presenter of a lecture series when LLM opened its doors in the spring of 2013, and he has joined us again a number of times since then with such topics as Great Popular Singers, the Beatles and Rock and Roll.

LLM is delighted to have Mike bring us One Hundred Years of Jazz this fall.