Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.

Playing It by Ear Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.

American historian by day and Canadian jazz musician and playwright by night, Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. has also written five original ?jazz-musicals.? Originally, the idea was for a history professor who played jazz to use the stage to convey a message of some historical importance, augmented by music, as an experiment to see whether the theatre was not a better medium than the classroom. There is no doubting the important fact that the public cast their vote . . . and quite decidedly in the affirmative, despite it all. Playing It By Ear: The Jazz-Theatre of Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. explores such public events and social issues as the Canadian ice storm of 1998 and the urban-rural divide, Louis Armstrong?s ?Black and Blue? and the relationship between racism and domestic abuse, the death-rattle of patriarchal authority evident at family holiday gatherings, the penis and vagina as twin taboos, and what Forsberg?s seven-year trek along the Silk Road (2003?2010) in search of self understanding and renewal would cost him?but also reward him for venturing outside of the box.