Course Information

The course will provide students the opportunity to study the various historical topics of jazz, including jazz vocabulary, style periods, influential musicians, significant compositions, and aspects of improvisation and jazz theory. Students will learn to be discriminating listeners and consumers of jazz while understanding the historical, social, and cultural influences of the genre. In particular, the fusion of cross-cultural elements of European music,  African music, and Latin American music to produce jazz will be explored. The course will consist of independent research of historical documentaries, textbook, influential jazz musicians,  jazz recordings, and improvised solos.