African-American artist Romare Bearden’s “Jammin’ at the Savoy” is an impassioned celebration of jazz’s revolutionary style. The work’s innovative spatial composition and spontaneous bursts of color, harmonies and dissonances replicate the music’s improvisational rhythms. Bearden (1911 – 1988) grew up in Harlem and was strongly influenced by its proliferation of jazz music. With a style derived from Cubism, Bearden strove to universalize the experience of African-Americans. Bearden created an astounding 2,000 works, and is regarded as one of the 20th century’s foremost African-American artists.