How do we keep time—together and within ourselves?

Join Harlem jazz tour guide Amanda Humes in conversation with jazz pianist and painter Bill Buchman and neuroscientist Rachel Estrella (Zuckerman Institute) for an evening exploring rhythm, color, and the brain’s internal clock. Jazz musicians listen and sync with one another, shifting rhythms and settling into new grooves. Our brains stay in sync with the day itself—using light and color to set circadian cycles that guide sleep, metabolism, and health.

Drawing on research that examines how fruit flies use changes in the color of sunlight across the day to tune their circadian clocks, the conversation will consider what this work reveals about human biology in a world shaped by artificial light—and why staying in rhythm with the day matters.

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

Please note that reserved 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.