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What is jazz? Where did it come from? Where is it going? This program will provide an introduction to jazz music, an overview of its history, and an assessment of its impact on American culture. Students will explore the musical elements of jazz and its aesthetic, cultural, and historical roots. Jazz can refer to a variety of styles of composition, improvisation and performance, including New Orleans, swing, bebop, cool, and avant-garde. The music, its players, and its history have helped to shape American culture as a whole. Previous musical background is not required, but a willingness to listen patiently, carefully, and critically will enable students to feel and appreciate what scholar Robert G. O'Meally has called "the jazz cadence of American culture."

Our primary text will be The Oxford Companion to Jazz, edited by Bill Kirchner. Additional books and articles will include biographies and autobiographies, fiction, poetry (including music lyrics), and scholarly articles on jazz. Weekly film screenings will include a range of fiction works and documentaries such as Ken Burns’s critically acclaimed series Jazz . Finally, there will be extensive (and enjoyable!) listening assignments that will provide the soundtrack for our journey from Africa to the southern United States, to the urban North, throughout the nation, and across the globe.

We will devote two weekly seminars to close readings of written texts, film, and music. In addition to short weekly writing assignments, students will produce a final project that will help them refine both their expository and creative nonfiction writing skills. There will be a weekly in-house opportunity for musicians—whether aspiring or experienced—to play and share jazz, as well as a field trip to a major Pacific Northwest jazz festival.

Research Opportunities

Major student individual projects, but they must be well-connected to our program work.

Quarters

Spring Open

Location and Schedule

Campus Location

Olympia

Time Offered

Day

Advertised Schedule