Jazz: Tradition and Evolution

In the span of about one hundred years, jazz has emerged from its African American cultural birthplace to become lauded worldwide as a vital and uniquely accessible form of high musical art. This course will trace the development of jazz, with examination of the historically and musically significant styles, key artistic contributors, and social/cultural contexts; We will also look at jazz?s simultaneous roles as a tradition that is critically aware of its history (and undergoing a degree of contested canonizing), and as an approach to making music in real-time through applying improvisational practices to materials from diverse musical traditions. The course will seek to foster informed appreciation of what is arguably America?s first distinctive art form. This course satisfies the Division I distribution requirement. EXP, MCP