UMass Co-Presents ‘A Fool’s Journey: To the Beach Boys and Beyond’ with Jazz Pianist Carli Muñoz on Oct. 5th

The UMass Amherst Program in Comparative Literature and the Departments of Music and Languages, Literatures and Cultures will co-present an event with Puerto Rican jazz pianist Carli Muñoz, Thursday, Oct. 5th, at 7 p.m. in Smith College’s Sweeney Auditorium.

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Muñoz will perform with a local ensemble and present his new memoir, “A Fool’s Journey: To the Beach Boys and Beyonds,” in conversation with Jim Hicks, the Executive Editor of the Massachusetts Review.

Muñoz is a pianist, composer, writer, and visual artist who has the rare distinction of excelling in the mainstream of pop music and jazz. In 1971 he joined the Beach Boys and he left them in 1981 to pursue a career in jazz performance. Recordings and performances followed with top jazz artists, such as George Benson, Les McCann and others. Muñoz’s own works followed, culminating in his 2018 release “Follow Me.” Since 1998, Carli has performed live nightly at his venue, Carli’s Fine Bistro & Piano, in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“In addition to his status as a world-class musician, someone who has recorded with nearly everyone” Hicks comments, “Carli is a wonderful storyteller, and the Massachusetts Review is tickled pink to have published an excerpt from his inspiring story in our Fall issue. You might have heard the saying that, if you remember the sixties, then you weren’t there, but Carli’s memoir is a time-capsule exception to this rule: he remembers everything, and he was definitely there.”

The evening will begin with Carli on solo piano, following by a reading and conversation, along with an audience Q&A, and then the pianist will be joined by four local musicians, for a concert of roughly 45 minutes.

This event is co-sponsored by Northampton-based Interlink Publishing, the Massachusetts Review and the Five Colleges Consortium. Other sponsors include the Department of Music and the Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Amherst College, the Program of American Studies and the Department of Music at Smith College, Humanities and Arts at Hampshire College and the Department of Music at Mount Holyoke College.