Download and print the grading document. VERY IMPORTANT.
Same document as above, but in .doc form if that's more convenient for you.
| jazz_history_grading_document_spring_2012.doc |
Extra syllabus (Just in case you misplace yours)
| jazz_history_syllabus_spring_2012.doc |
Reading Assignment #1, Due 1/30
Read the article "Improvisation" below (or download file) and answer the following questions:
a) Briefly describe the main points of improvisation from the "Concept" sections.
b) List three ways that improvisation is used differently throughout the cultures of the world.
c) Choose one culture from the "Sampling of Genres" section and briefly summarize how it utilizes improvisation.
a) Briefly describe the main points of improvisation from the "Concept" sections.
b) List three ways that improvisation is used differently throughout the cultures of the world.
c) Choose one culture from the "Sampling of Genres" section and briefly summarize how it utilizes improvisation.
| bruno_nettl_improvisation.doc |
Reading Assignment #2, Due 2/1
Read the chapter from Amiri Baraka's "Blues People" titled "Their Music" below and answer the following questions:
a) How does the author describe the culture and usages of work songs?
b) Describe what he says was the main differences from the "first slaves" and their "offspring" or the very first "African-Americans."
c) How was African-American misunderstood throughout most of its history in America?
d) Name and briefly describe three key features of West African music.
a) How does the author describe the culture and usages of work songs?
b) Describe what he says was the main differences from the "first slaves" and their "offspring" or the very first "African-Americans."
c) How was African-American misunderstood throughout most of its history in America?
d) Name and briefly describe three key features of West African music.
| blues_people_ch3_their_music.pdf |
Listening Assignment #1 (Ragtime) - Due 2/13
Provide one thoughtful paragraph for each performance commenting on things like:
Technique, originality, creativity, "dance" feeling, improvisation, etc. Support your ideas.
Feel free to discuss anything else you might find interesting to the subject as well.
Technique, originality, creativity, "dance" feeling, improvisation, etc. Support your ideas.
Feel free to discuss anything else you might find interesting to the subject as well.
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Reading Assignment #3, Due 2/13
Read the article entitled, "The Beginnings of Jazz" below and then answer the following questions.
a.) Although it is difficult to define what jazz is, the reading lists two definitive characteristics of the music, especially in its early days. What are they?
b.) Name three of the different musical sources that were combined to create jazz and briefly list (two to three sentences EACH) what they contributed.
c.) What instruments would you be likely to hear in an early jazz ensemble?
d.) What was it that allowed jazz to make the leap from New Orleans folk music to an international phenomenon?
e.) Other than Louis Armstrong, name four significant jazz musicians from the 1920's.
f.) List two of the ways that the instrumentation of the jazz ensemble began to change as it developed through the twenties and thirties.
a.) Although it is difficult to define what jazz is, the reading lists two definitive characteristics of the music, especially in its early days. What are they?
b.) Name three of the different musical sources that were combined to create jazz and briefly list (two to three sentences EACH) what they contributed.
c.) What instruments would you be likely to hear in an early jazz ensemble?
d.) What was it that allowed jazz to make the leap from New Orleans folk music to an international phenomenon?
e.) Other than Louis Armstrong, name four significant jazz musicians from the 1920's.
f.) List two of the ways that the instrumentation of the jazz ensemble began to change as it developed through the twenties and thirties.
| the_beginnings_of_jazz.pdf |
Reading Assignment #4, Due 2/15
Read this Jelly Roll Morton letter (click on text to be linked)and answer the following questions:
a) What does Jelly Roll Morton claim to be the issue and what is his stance?
b) How does Jelly Roll Morton describe the abilities of Handy?
c) How does Jelly Roll Morton describe the jazz of New York?
d) How would you describe Jelly Roll Morton's persona based on his writing here?
a) What does Jelly Roll Morton claim to be the issue and what is his stance?
b) How does Jelly Roll Morton describe the abilities of Handy?
c) How does Jelly Roll Morton describe the jazz of New York?
d) How would you describe Jelly Roll Morton's persona based on his writing here?
Listening Assignment #2 (1920s), Due 2/20
Listen to the five performance below and provide one or two thoughtful comments on the following for each selection:
1) What features seem comparable to those you understand to be "jazz" (if any)?
2) To what degree is improvisation used?
3) What value, if any, do you think the general public of the 1920s found in this music?
1) What features seem comparable to those you understand to be "jazz" (if any)?
2) To what degree is improvisation used?
3) What value, if any, do you think the general public of the 1920s found in this music?
Clarence William's Blue Five (with Armstrong and Bechet) (1924-5)
Joe Oliver/Louis Armstrong, West End Blues (1928)
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Jelly Roll, Black Belly Stomp (1926)
Al Jolson, Mammy (1927)
Paul Whiteman, Mississippi Mud (1928)
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Listening Assignment #3 (1930s), Due 2/22
Listen to the five performance below and provide one or two thoughtful comments on the following for each selection:
1) To what degree do you think this music is party or dance based?
2) How much is improvisation used in this piece, and how advanced does the improvisation seem? Explain.
3) Any additional thoughts on the music not mentioned in these two questions.
1) To what degree do you think this music is party or dance based?
2) How much is improvisation used in this piece, and how advanced does the improvisation seem? Explain.
3) Any additional thoughts on the music not mentioned in these two questions.
Art Tatum, Tea for Two, 1933Count Basie and His Orchestra, Jumpin' At the Woodside, 1938 |
Benny Goodman Big Band, Sing, Sing, Sing, 1938Coleman Hawkins, Body and Soul, 1939 |
Listening Assignment #4 (1940s), Due 3/7
Listen to the four performances below and provide one or two thoughtful comments on the following for each selection:
1) To what degree do you think this music is commercially driven? Explain your rationale.
2) How much is improvisation used in this piece, and how advanced does the improvisation seem? Explain.
3) Any additional thoughts on the music not mentioned in these two questions.
1) To what degree do you think this music is commercially driven? Explain your rationale.
2) How much is improvisation used in this piece, and how advanced does the improvisation seem? Explain.
3) Any additional thoughts on the music not mentioned in these two questions.
Duke Ellington, Cottontail (1940)
Benny Goodman (featuring Charlie Christian) - Solo Flight (1941)
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Tommy Dorsey (Featuring Frank Sinatra) - In the Blue of Evening (1943)
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Reading/Writing Assignment #5 (Thelonious Monk), Due 3/26
Listen to this short podcast about the new Thelonious Monk biography and briefly describe your take on this artist and his music.
Listening Assignment #5 (Bebop), Due 3/26
Listen to the recordings below and discuss two highlights from each. Be sure to explain in a two or three sentences for each highlight why you chose it.
Dizzy Gillespie - Salt Peanuts (1945)
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Tadd Dameron - Lady Bird (1948)
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Listening Assignment #5 (Cool Jazz, Third Stream, and Hard Bop), Due 4/2
Listen to each of the videos below and comment in detail how each is similar and different than Bebop.
Third Stream: Modern Jazz Quartet - Stream (1957) |
Cool Jazz: Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine (1959) |
Hard Bop: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - A Night in Tunisia (1958) |
Reading Assignment #6 (Third Stream), Due 4/2
Read the Gunther Schuller article below (.pdf file included as well) and summarize (4-5 sentences) how Schuller defines what "Third Stream" is and what it can be.
| musings_gunther_schuller_third_stream.pdf |
Reading Assignment #7 (Hard Bop), Due 4/4
Using the "Hard Bop" page on Wikipedia (click here), briefly describe, in your own words, how Hard Bop is different from Bebop, Cool Jazz and the other subgenres of Jazz.
Reading Assignment #8 (Free Jazz), Due 4/11
Using the "Free Jazz" page on Wikipedia (click here), create an informative conversation (2-3 paragraphs) describing:
a) what free jazz is.
b) why musicians chose to express their feelings and thoughts this way.
c) why this is an important brand of expression that we shouldn't just overlook as "weird" or simply "out there."
a) what free jazz is.
b) why musicians chose to express their feelings and thoughts this way.
c) why this is an important brand of expression that we shouldn't just overlook as "weird" or simply "out there."
Listening Assignment #6 (Free Jazz), Due 4/11
Listen to each track below in their entirety. Then briefly comment on the following for each:
a) How does this track differ from "not-free" music or "regular jazz" for that matter?
b) What might this track represent in terms of musical innovation/progression?
Then make one final comment based on all of the music you listened to.
a) Why might the world be a better place if everyone understood what was going on in this music?
a) How does this track differ from "not-free" music or "regular jazz" for that matter?
b) What might this track represent in terms of musical innovation/progression?
Then make one final comment based on all of the music you listened to.
a) Why might the world be a better place if everyone understood what was going on in this music?
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Listening Assignment #7 (Fusion), Due 4/23
Listen to each of the videos below and discuss what influences you hear from jazz (specific to time periods like blues, big band, bebop, etc.) and what influences you hear from genres outside of mainstream jazz. Three to four sentences for each should suffice.
Gary Burton - Duster (1967)
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Miles Davis - Petits Machins (1968)
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Reading Assignment #9 (Fusion), Due 4/23
Using the "Jazz Fusion" page on Wikipedia, locate and describe (4-5 sentences each) one artist/band and their music from the different chronological subsections of Jazz Fusion.
1) 1960s:
2) 1970s:
3) 1980s:
4) 1990s-2000s:
1) 1960s:
2) 1970s:
3) 1980s:
4) 1990s-2000s:
Listening Assignment #8 (Modern Jazz), Due 4/30
Listen to each of the "modern jazz" videos below. What is the connection of each of these recordings all made post-1980 to older jazz?
Wynton Marsalis - Buggy Ride
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GRP Big Band - Cherokee
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Listening Assignment, #9 (Postmodern Jazz)
End of semester gift - we'll do this in class instead of you doing it at home.
Reading Assignment #10, Due 5/7
Read this provocative blog post by internationally renowned "jazz" trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Let a semester's worth of discussion and listening flow through you and then discuss if you agree and/or disagree with Payton's viewpoint and why.
