WSIU InFocus Video Player

SIUC Radio-Television professor Jim Wall talks with professional jazz musician and Jackson State University associate music professor, London Branch. Branch has been teaching and playing music for over forty years and believes it’s important to teach music appreciation to children, in particular about jazz. As Branch explains, the benefits of teaching children music are endless. Learning to play an instrument can increase students’ hand-eye coordination while learning music fundamentals can help students to become better problem solvers. Branch recalls the impact of jazz music in southern Illinois, especially in Cairo, during the late 1960s and early ‘70s when he taught music at SIUC. He also shares memories of his first job as a musician in West City where he played with the likes of Bob Armstrong and Charlie Childers.

To view the video on the page, installation of the Silverlight plug-in from Microsoft. The direct link to the video is available. Further, Macintosh users will need the Flip4Mac software installed to play Windows Media files.