What happens when a theoretical physicist and a jazz musician walk into a Kansas City theater?

Theoretical physicist Stephon Alexander and NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison are exploring their theory of quantum improvisation. The two will bring their collaborations to a Kansas City stage for the first time next week.
The connections between jazz music and the origins of our universe aren’t always obvious or easy to explain.

Theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist Stephon Alexander has been studying those connections for more than two decades. Alexander specializes in cosmology, particle physics, and quantum gravity, and he has some big thoughts on the subject.

“I would say the three greatest intellectual achievements of the century (were) ... quantum mechanics, Einstein's theory of relativity, and bebop,” Alexander says.