Division of Continuing Eduction African and African American Studies E-179 Jazz, Freedom, and Culture Spring 2015
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Division of Continuing Eduction African and African American Studies E-179 Jazz, Freedom, and Culture Spring 2015 Lectures available online Professor Ingrid Monson Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music Departments of Music and African and African American Studies Music Building 202S [email protected] Teaching Fellow Krystal Klingenberg, [email protected] Course Description and Objectives One of the most notable paradoxes about jazz is that something so powerfully associated with freedom, individuality, and collective self-assertion could have arisen at a point in American history so starkly unfree. Throughout the first sixty-five years of its history, after all, jazz was indelibly shaped by the legal, social, and economic restrictions of Jim Crow segregation. The freedom of musical expression and joy in jazz improvisation always contrasted starkly with the oppressiveness of the social and legal structures in which the music developed. As Albert Murray famously noted, the blues of jazz and popular music provided “equipment for living” in an unfair world. A central focus of the course will be to trace this central contrast as it has evolved over the last century. We devote considerable attention to the history of jazz improvisation as a musical process and also explore the cultural, aesthetic, racial, and social debates that shaped the development of the music. On the one hand, jazz fashioned itself as the ultimate modern music with freedom and justice for all, and, on the other, provided an arena in which complex debates about race, cultural ownership, and social disparity repeatedly took place. Improvisation is central to the musical language of jazz and is often taken both as the defining characteristic of the art form and the central symbol of its musical and political freedom. Jazz musicians famously take a song and embellish and extend it through melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic processes of variation. Each musician and stylistic era did it a bit differently and by building on the performative and recorded legacies of those who came before developed a powerful and influential art form that has long been global in its reach. Learning about how to listen to improvisation and appreciate its multi-faceted styles and organization is another goal of the course. Jazz courses are traditionally historically organized, which has the down side of not getting to appreciate jazz as a living music and community until the later stages of the course. This semester we’ll be putting historical examples in dialogue with the music of today as we combine a historical and thematic approach to the music. The New Orleans of Louis Armstrong’s years and the New Orleans of post-Katrina have much in common, as the poverty and racism that shaped the emergence of jazz are still present. The brass band parades and funerals of the 1910s continue today are anything but dead. The economic depression of the 1930s and the salience of War in the 1940s have their counterpart in the economic crash of 2008 and the continuous state of war since 9/11. Musicians of each of these eras and today have tried to make their art speak to the central issues of their time. Musicians today have taken the forms and traditions of the past and created remarkable new interpretations and extensions on venerable traditions. As we listen to old music, we’ll also listen to music from today. We will have several artist visits this semester also. Both pianist/composer Vijay Iyer and drummer/composer Terri Lynne Carrington will be coming to class in April. Drummer Ralph Peterson and his group will show you how a modern jazz rhythm section works in February. In addition the Harvard Jazz Bands will have as pianist Harold Mabern and tenor saxophonist George Coleman as Jazz Master artists in residence culminating in a concert at Sanders Theatre on April 18. This course fulfills the General Education requirement in Aesthetics and Interpretation. It also counts toward the Secondary Field in Ethnic Studies. Materials and Access 1. Ingrid Monson, Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 2. Additional readings, listening, and tutorials posted on course website Web site: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/2381 Music Tutorials The course presumes no pre-existing technical knowledge of music. You will be expected to develop your technical knowledge with the help of an online Music Tutorial and your weekly discussion sections. The tutorials offer a means of self-guided musical learning and you are expected to make use of them throughout the course whether or not they are specifically mentioned in lectures. Your section leaders will help you use these materials in a way that is appropriate to you. There are several technical levels of musical examples available in the tutorial, including many for those of you who do have pre-existing technical knowledge of music. Course Requirements and Grading Procedures 1. Watching Lectures and attending online sections (20%) 2. Weekly section assignments. (30%). Section assignments may include short response papers, listening quizzes, or class presentations (e.g. lead a panel discussion with your section on topic of significance). 3. Three short papers: 4-6 pages (30%--10% per paper) a. Paper #1. Due Feb 19. Write an essay on Armstrong and Ellington and the significance of New Orleans, Chicago, and New York to jazz. b. Paper #2. Due Mar 10. Due An essay on a historical or critical topic. You will be given a choice of issues and questions to write about. The purpose of the assignment is to have you critically synthesize your reading, listening, and interpretive perspectives. c. Paper #3. Due Apr 2. Research and write about the history and influence of an album or song 4. Final Project (20%). Due May 6. Options include: a. A 10-15 page research paper on a topic related to the music and themes of this course. b. A multi-media presentation (Powerpoint, Keynote, Prezi) on a topic related to the music and themes of this course. The commentary for each slide must be written out and turned in with the presentation. c. A video project on a topic related to the music and themes of this course. A written narrative must accompany the video explaining the conceptualization of the video, how it video was made and the research materials on which it was based. Course Policies and Expectations Reading Assignments You are expected to complete the reading assignments before each lecture. This will facilitate informed discussion at the end of each class. Listening Assignments You are responsible for listening to the recordings assigned before lectures. Those pieces listed under “Listening--Required Set List:” are those that can appear in listening quizzes. You should listen and relisten to the selections until you are confident that you can recognized the piece, identify the performing group, and know the approximate year of the performance. Late Work Students will have four grace period days to be used throughout the semester to be applied against any late assignments. This means that you need not ask for an extension for up to four assignments late by one day each, or two assignments each two days late, etc. Once you have exhausted your late assignment allowance, you must request an extension at least 48 hours in advance and of an assignment’s due date and present a doctor's note, or a special request from your Resident Dean. Late papers without an extension will be assessed a penalty of 1/3 of a letter grade for every day beyond the deadline. Sickness If you are ill and cannot attend a lecture or section, please provide a note from your resident dean or doctor to verify your condition. Academic Integrity Members of the Harvard College community commit themselves to producing academic work with integrity—that is, work that adheres to the scholarly and intellectual standards of accurate attribution of sources, appropriate collection and use of data, and transparent acknowledgement of the contribution of others to our ideas, discoveries, interpretations, and conclusions. Cheating on exams or problems sets, plagiarizing or misrepresenting the idea or language of someone else as one’s own, falsifying data, or any other instance of academic dishonesty violates the standards of our community, as well as the standards of the wider world of learning and affairs. Collaboration Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc), you must also acknowledge this assistance. Accommodations for students with disabilities Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability must present their Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term (Februay 6). Failure to do so may result in the teaching staff’s inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain confidential, although Faculty are invited to contact AEO to discuss appropriate implementation. Course Schedule Week 1 T Jan 27: Introduction Th Jan 29 History, Politics, Race, Culture: Theorizing the Jazz Tradition Question of the day: What is the jazz tradition? Reading: 1.