Jazz 101 introduces the fundamental principles of Jazz music using recorded examples from its history. We celebrate Jazz as a unique art form, while tracing the origins of the music and its functional place in the American entertainment panoply of the 20th century. The course explores fundamental principles in basic terminology, with intent to demystify how Jazz works, where it comes from, and where it can take us. We explore the pre-history of Jazz, its emergence in New Orleans, the triumphs of the Jazz Age, Swing Era, and Bebop. And Jazz 101 follows the threads of those early chapters into the fertile expansions of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. And of course we situate Jazz within the cultural panoply of now.

The course emphasizes the broadest principles in the music, while also dwelling on the influential stories of key figures: Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and others. We’ll use the pieces that are familiar cornerstones, and also introduce participants to exciting new elements of the music’s history along the way. No musical knowledge necessary, and no one’s called on to make music in class.

This course will combine lecture with class discussions.

This is an eight-session course (16 hours total).