The maternal bond is a very special, almost spiritual connection that can promote well-being and community-building skills in both mother and child. Join us as we explore the neuroscience behind the dynamics of the mother-child bond and learn about the control circuit of the brain which plays a role in this bi-directional relationship.

Join us for a jazz concert and dialogue with multi-instrumentalist jazz musician, composer, and educator T.K. Blue; pianist Greg Murphy; and our guest speaker (and a musician herself!) Sarah Bennett, M.S., a Research Assistant at Columbia University.

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

Sarah Bennett

Sarah Bennett is a recent graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, where she received a M.S. in Neuroscience & Education. Born and raised in New York City, she comes from a background in music and arts education and received her B.M. from NYU in Instrumental Music Performance, with a minor in Social & Cultural Analysis. Sarah has worked with developmental populations in clinical, research, and educational settings. While at Columbia University, her work as a research assistant under Dr. Karen Froud, Dr. Rachel Marsh, and Dr. Nim Tottenham has involved developmental populations and the effects of environmental stress exposure on cognitive control and well-being. She currently studies the relationships between maternal stress, internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children, and functional connectivity between regions associated with inhibitory control.

TK Blue

Talib Kibwe, or TK Blue, is a saxophonist, flautist, composer, arranger, and educator. He has appeared on over 85 recordings and performed with such artists as Don Cherry; Jaki Byard’s Apollo Stompers; Abdullah Ibrahim; Miriam Makeba; Randy Weston, Archie Shepp; Dizzy Gillespie; Pharoah Sanders; Andy Bey; Regina Carter; Bobby McFerrin; Dee Dee Bridgewater; Jimmy Scott; Mal Waldron; Arturo O’Farrill–just to name a tiny few.

TK is committed to music education. Having received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music and Psychology from NYU and a Master’s Degree in Music Education from Teachers College Columbia University, Blue has taught at every level from pre-K to the graduate level, including Long Island University LIU-Post where he was the director of jazz studies from 2007 to 2014.

TK’s 2017 release, Amour, his 11th CD as a leader, was cited as one of the best jazz recordings of the year by Downbeat Magazine. TK was later commissioned to compose a suite dedicated to the early presence of African-Americans in the upstate New York Hudson Valley area. The result was a CD entitled Follow The North Star based on the life of Solomon Northup and his memoir Twelve Years A Slave. His 12th CD as a leader is entitled The Rhythms Continue, dedicated to two NEA Jazz Masters Dr. Randy Weston and trombonist/composer/arranger Melba Liston. In 2019 TK conceived and performed The Motherland Connections, manifesting the African roots of Jazz, with its premier at Jazzmobile’s Summer Concert Series in Marcus Garvey Park in 2019. His 14th CD as a leader is entitled Planet Bluu, which features a younger generation of jazz masters, highlighting his dedication to education and the continuing legacy of jazz.