Music on the Brain: The Dance Before the Embrace

Music on the Brain

What do fighting fish, jazz improvisation, and Valentine’s Day have in common?

Join us for a special Valentine’s-themed installment of Music on the Brain, where we bring together live jazz and neuroscience to explore how brains communicate—through aggression, courtship, and cooperation. Research scientist Zach Mayer (Bendesky Lab, Zuckerman Institute) studies betta fish, whose dramatic fighting displays and unconventional mating rituals offer a powerful window into fundamental emotions like aggression and fear. Alongside saxophonist Patience Higgins, the conversation will draw striking parallels between genetic tools that “turn the dial” on behavior, the signaling dances betta fish perform when fighting and courting, and the way jazz musicians communicate, negotiate, and improvise within musical constraints. 

Harlem Jazz Tour Guide Amanda Humes hosts an evening of live music and conversation, exploring the fascinating parallels between neuroscience and jazz improvisation.

Music on the Brain is a collaboration between the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.

Please note that tickets will be held until 10 minutes before the program begins, after which any unclaimed seats may be released to attendees without tickets, subject to room capacity.

Amanda W. Humes is a native of the Commonwealth of Virginia and has lived in NYC for 30 years.  She has her BA in Sociology from Columbia University and worked as a meeting planner for The Conference Board for 10 years.  She then pivoted to a joyful path of a New York City Tour Guide in Harlem and Greenwich Village with Big Apple Jazz Tours, where she has had the pleasure of educating, singing, and sharing Harlem’s history with visitors worldwide for more than 15 years.  She continues to encourage visitors to come and enjoy the culture, food, history, and music as it vibrates through the sidewalks and streets that were traversed by the greats like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie. She is very honored and pleased to serve as the moderator for this session of Music on the Brain.

Patience Higgins is a New York-based jazz saxophonist, flutist, and multi-reed musician. He also plays clarinet, oboe, and the English horn. He has performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Count Basie Band, Archie Shepp, Aretha Franklin, Pointer Sisters, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Paquito D’Rivera, Cleo Laine, The Sugar Hill Jazz Quartet, and many others.

Patience has a long history as a Broadway musician, playing in Ave Q, Chicago, Motown, The Wiz, Dreamgirls, Jelly’s Last Jam, Shuffle Along, Hair, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Black & Blue.  

He has performed at every major jazz festival, including North Sea Jazz, Playboy Jazz, Newport Jazz, Heritage Jazz, Monterey Jazz, Charlie Parker Jazz and the Montreux Jazz festivals. He can also be heard on the following motion picture soundtracks: School Daze, Cotton Club, Awakenings, Baby Boy, PassOver, and Billie Holiday vs U.S.A.

Mr. Higgins is also a woodwinds instructor for Jazzmobile.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 58 West 129th Street, New York, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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