ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 121:

CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES IN JAZZ

Textbooks

Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, edited by Robert G. O’Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards and Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University Press ISBN 0-231-12351-5.
What Is This Thing Called Jazz? African-American Musicians As Artists, Critics and Activists, Eric Porter, University of California Press Berkeley, ISBN 0-520-23296-8.

Supplemental Texts

The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, edited by Robert G. O’Meally, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-10449-9.
Asian Americans Making Music, Deborah Wong, Routledge Press, ISBN 0-19-513241-6.
Future Jazz, Howard Mandel, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-506378-3.
Tropical Truth A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil, Caetano Veloso, Da Capo Press, ISBN 9780306812811
Visions of Jazz The First Century, Gary Giddins, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0415970402.

Final Class Paper

A twenty-five page, double-spaced paper will be due by the end of the tenth week. The paper will be included as 30% of the final grade. The paper should cover an artist’s influences, primary career contributions, impact on the future of jazz and, most importantly, the cross-cultural aspects of the artist’s oeuvre. A full bibliography must be included in the paper. The artist chosen as the subject of the paper should be derived from the listening list; however, if the student chooses an artist outside of the list the Professor must pre-approve.

Week 1: January 7

Begin discussing African and Early American roots of Jazz and cover the approaches that developed in rhythm, inflection, color, harmony and timbre. This discussion will also cover the uniqueness of the practice of Jazz performance and the relationship between improvisation and composition.

Homework

1. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 1-26.
2. Read What Is This Thing Called Jazz?, pp. xiii-26.
3. Begin studying listening list.

Week 1: January 9

Overview of the basic components of Cross-Cultural practices in Jazz.

Homework

1. Read What Is This Thing Called Jazz?, pp. 149-190.
2. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 102-125.
3. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 2: January 14

Examine the reading assignments from Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies and What Is This Thing Called Jazz? Discuss the crucial role of the African-American female voice in the development of cross-cultural Jazz practices.

Homework

1. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 297-311 & pp. 326-356.
2. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 2: January 16

Discuss the role of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn as archetypes of compositional cultural multiplicity in Jazz.

Homework

1. Read What Is This Thing Called Jazz?, pp. 54-148.
2. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 27-49
3. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 3: January 21

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday (No Instruction)

Week 3: January 23

Survey the foundation and development of composer, bassist, bandleader, record label owner Charles Mingus’ extension of the Ellington-Strayhorn paradigm. The discussion will also cover the role of politics within Mingus’ compositional output.

Homework

1. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 4: January 28

Examine the continuing dialogue between Jazz and Classical composition and how both styles of music developed from one another. Discuss the merging of Chinese, Japanese and Balinese musical elements with Jazz.

Homework

1. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 204-248
2. Read What Is This Thing Called Jazz?, pp. 287-334.
3. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 4: January 30

The circle becomes complete as African music is reshaped by African-American music.

Homework

1. Continue studying the listening list.

Week 5: February 4

Midterm review

Homework

1. Prepare for the midterm.

Week 5: February 6

*Midterm: Will cover all of the material presented in class through the fifth week and listening list number one.

Homework

1. Begin studying the new listening list.

Week 6: February 11

Examine Brazil’s unique mixture of African, Indigenous and European musical languages. Composers and performers in this discussion include Elis Regina, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Luciana Souza, Egberto Gismonti and Joao Gilberto.

Homework

1. Work on paper and listening list.
2. Read What Is This Thing Called Jazz?, pp. 191-286.

Week 6: February 13

Discuss composer/pianist/conceptualist Jason Moran’s groundbreaking multi-disciplinary vision and his collaboration with conceptual artist/philosopher, Adrian Piper. We will discuss his inspirations that come from sources as diverse as Harlem Stride and Olivier Messiaen.

Homework

1. Work on paper and listening list.
2. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 50-101.

Week 7: February 18

President’s Day Holiday (No Instruction)

Homework

1. Work on paper and listening list.
2. Read Uptown Conversation - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 357-373.

Week 7: February 20

Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s last compositions continue to pave the way in the development of cross-cultural musical expression. This discussion examines at their roles as models for avant-garde Jazz Composers.

Homework

1. Work on paper and listening list.

Week 8: February 25

Examine Miles Davis’ long-standing obsession with the music of Spain and his creation of a new Blues-based expression from the union of the Blues and Spanish Flamenco.

Homework

1. Work on paper and listening list.
2. Read Uptown Conversation  - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 393-403.

Week 8: February 27

John Coltrane and Sun Ra bring the elements of ritual and experimentation to create new discoveries in cross-cultural Jazz. 

Homework
a) Work on paper and listening list.

1. Read Uptown Conversation  - The New Jazz Studies, pp. 374-392.

Week 9: March 3

Geri Allen, Ruth Naomi Floyd and Vijay Iyer - three different approaches to Jazz modernism.

Homework
   a) Work on paper and listening list.

Week 9: March 5

Examine the influences of cross-cultural Jazz on musical languages not dominated by Jazz. This discussion will include music by Oumou Sangere, Bjork,

Joni Mitchell, Salif Keita and others.

Homework
a) Work on paper and listening list.

Week 10:  March 10

Concluding discussion will summarize the most important concepts of the course using a set of musical examples that epitomize these concepts.

Homework
a) Work on paper and listening list.

Week 10: March 12

Final review

Homework
a) Review for the Final and complete your paper.

*Final Exam Schedule: To be announced

Final Grade:

30% Paper
35% Midterm examination
35% Final examination

*The grading system will use pluses and minuses.