My curriculum and concepts for teaching jazz history are strongly influenced by Rae Linda Brown, PhD (currently at Loyola Marymount University), a distinguished scholar of Black music who I studied and worked with as a teaching assistant at UC Irvine. The history of jazz cannot be separated from the musical and social history of the United States, and the genre of jazz is itself loosely defined and often misunderstood. An effective strategy for teaching jazz history must incorporate study of African diasporic musical idioms and social function, the circulation of musical ideas among American musicians in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the reciprocal relationships that existed between music and society at large during the peak years of development in jazz.
Rather than using a single textbook for reading students read and consult primary sources and criticism of jazz, including writing by and about Amiri Baraka, Stanley Crouch, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and many more. Listening examples are drawn from original recordings from the 1890s until today. If possible, students are required to attend jazz performances both on and off campus. Lectures begin with an examination of West African musical traditions and the effect of the middle passage on African-American musical discourse, and continue to examine major trends in Black music generally and jazz specifically, especially the rhythmic tropes and inflections of American improvised music, the transitions between aurally and textually mediated musical forms, and the cross-fertilization of ideas found in jazz frameworks, popular song, and art music.
The ability to hear song forms (such as blues and AABA structures) and the subtle rhythmic styles that typify “swing” is developed through listening in and out of class, in-class demonstrations, and clapping/timekeeping games. Major figures in the development of jazz are discussed in depth and contextualized musically and socially. Understanding the relationships between jazz and popular music is especially important, and original songs from the popular repertoire (such as “I Got Rhythm,” “My Favorite Things,” etc) are studied and contrasted with jazz recordings.
The development of jazz is studied from the 1890s until the mid 1970s. Trends in jazz and improvised music from the past 30 years are compared to their musical predecessors. This curriculum can be adapted to a one-year two-semester (or three-quarter) course, or a more focused (ie “early jazz,” “jazz from 1940-1965″) one semester (or quarter) course.
Lectures are supplemented by online study materials such as these, which I created for a lecture on cool jazz:
The video below is excerpted from a lecture I gave on modal jazz in 2008. In-class playback of various pieces (“So What,” and “Giant Steps,” as well as Ahmad Jamal’s “Pavane” and “Poinciana” and Bill Evans’ version of “Blue in Green”) have been edited out. Here are the online study materials I prepared for the video lecture:
Modal Jazz Lecture Part 1: Concepts, influences, Kind of Blue
Modal Jazz Lecture part 2: Coltrane, “Giant Steps,” Bill Evans
