In this series, we explore the intersections between jazz music and science, from how we experience sound and rhythm, to musical memories and the creative process. Join multiple Grammy nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón for an intimate online performance combined with a conversation with scientists from Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, where Zenón is currently jazz artist-in-residence.

In the first of this series, Miguel Zenón joins with neuroscientist and science communicator Dr. Paula Croxson. Enjoy a live performance of memorable music, and exploration of why some songs are more memorable than others, and why we like the music that we like.

​Miguel Zenón​ represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often-contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American Folkloric Music and Jazz. He is the jazz artist-in-residence at the Zuckerman Institute.

Paula Croxson, PhD​ is a neuroscientist, science communicator, musician, and open water swimmer. She received an M.A. from the University of Cambridge and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford before moving to New York to run a neuroscience lab. Her research focuses on the brain networks and chemicals responsible for memory, particularly our autobiographical life memories (episodic memories), and what happens when they fail. She is Associate Director for Public Programs at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Senior Producer for The Story Collider. She is also the flutist in alternative rock band Marlowe Grey and nerdy rock band Pavlov’s Dogz. The swimming is apparently for “fun”.

Sound Waves and Brain Waves is a collaboration between Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.