1. Name of Proposer: Martin Rokeach 2. Email Address: [email protected] 3
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1. Name of Proposer: Martin Rokeach 2. Email address: [email protected] 3. Department/Program of Proposer: Performing Arts Department/Music 4. Name of Department/Program housing the course: same 5. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair (if not the proposer): Martin Rokeach (Program Director), Frank Murray (Chair). 6. Course Acronym, Number and Title: Perfa 113, Jazz and Blues in America 7. Proposal is for All Sections of the course: __yes___ Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Pathways to Knowledge only): __no___ 8. Course Prerequisites (if any): None 9. Unit Value of Course: 1 10. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed. (Please submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.) Pathways to Knowledge (at most one) Artistic Understanding – Artistic Analysis only: __X__ Artistic Understanding – Creative Practice only: ____ Artistic Understanding – Both Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice: ____ Mathematical Understanding: ____ Scientific Understanding: ____ Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding: ____ Christian Foundations: ____ Theological Explorations: ____ Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two) American Diversity: __X__ Common Good: ____ Community Engagement: ____ Global Perspectives: ____ Course Overview Jazz and Blues in America examines two genres of immense importance that transformed not only music in America but that of the entire world. Students become familiar with the works and contributions of jazz artists such as Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bennie Goodman, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Milt Powell, Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Poncho Sanchez. They also become familiar with the following seminal blues artists: Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Mama Thornton, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix. The substance of the course is not merely musical. Ninety-six percent of the music is created by African-American artists and, as in the Performing Arts Department’s classical music history courses, much attention is paid to social and cultural context. The “text” for the course is not a book. It is Ken Burns’ 10-part series called “Jazz.” There are also supplemental readings from Robert Palmer’s “Deep Blues.” From the latter work and class lectures students learn how the region known as the Mississippi Delta changed from a slave to sharecropping economy and its effect on music, and how the first blues songs emerged from African-American folk music in the 1890s. From those first songs, created in the midst of overwhelming human hardship and the most humble of conditions, country blues evolved into jazz, electric blues, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, rap and almost every variety of American popular song. From the former work (the Burns’ videos) and class lectures students learn of the effects of Jim Crow and segregation, the rise of the KKK and African-American resistance to it, the First Great Migration and it’s effects on music and the other arts, the Harlem Renaissance and its music, the Second Great Migration and its transformative musical ramifications. Learning Outcome #1 asks students to analyze aspects of social diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, political identity). This course asks students to “intellectually engage with the social, cultural, economic, and political diversity” of the United States through the lens of jazz and blues. Blues is easier because there are lyrics. Jazz is more subtle and elusive because the music is almost always instrumental -- its substance is not conveyed in words but in the notes themselves. Still, during the Dixieland and Swing eras, the question is asked: Why is the music so celebratory when there was so much pain and oppression? The power of resistance in order to maintain dignity and self-respect is explored and discussed. Learning Outcome #2 asks students to demonstrate understanding of how aspects of social diversity affect society in the United States of America. At the advent of the Civil rights movement in the 1950s, the lyrics of blues become decidedly more optimistic, despite the fact that African-American incomes were not rising nor were divorce rates falling. Scenes of African-American life that are shown in the Ken Burns videos are compared with episodes of the once-popular “Donna Reed Show,” which depicts middle-class whites living in privilege and comfort. Television shows like these were viewed not only in White middle-class living rooms but those of African-Americans as well. if this is what the American Pie looked like, African-Americans wanted a piece. Students explore what the result was politically, and how it was conveyed musically. Songs such as “i’m Ready” and “i’m a Man” by Muddy Waters, “Money” by Barrett Strong, and the original version of “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton, are compared with earlier blues songs that convey more pain and the inability to fix one’s situation. Students are asked to discuss this in a large essay on their final exam. Learning Outcomes #3 and #4 asks students to explain how social categories and structures of power may affect the human person. Jazz and Blues in America focuses largely on the struggles of African-Americans to secure a position of dignity in American society. One theme implied in so many songs is that the impact of social categories and structures of power is it forces individuals to live a constrained life in a box. The blues songs usually appear to be sung from the box, yet the jazz so often manages to celebrate, despite all constraints, being alive. Every week there are class discussions about the previous week’s listening assignment -- it’s content and the nature of its expressive power. In addition, the fascinating biographies of the artists in the Ken Burns videos are discussed. I often open with the question “What did you learn from the video about American history? What was memorable about any of the musicians we watched? Last spring one student remarked: “i had no idea how vicious racism was outside the South.” Another asked how Duke Ellington could suffer such continuing indignities yet never show anger. Another student said: “in the Burns videos almost all the musicians are African-American but nearly all the jazz musicologists who talk and talk and talk are White. Why?” Another student asked why so few blues songs ever refer to white dominance or White people at all. The discussions often become very animated! Of course, the discussions continually link with the music. The struggles of women are conveyed in song as well, and this too is explored by students. Sexist lyrics abound in blues, which they hear in John Lee Hooker’s “Drug Store Woman,” B. B. King’s “Don’t Answer the Door” and numerous other songs. But students learn that a change comes toward the beginning of the 1950s. Elvis Presley’s famous version of “Hound Dog” is literally about an animal. But it was preceded by Big Mama Thornton’s original, about a woman who believes she is worth enough, and empowered enough, to waste not another minute in a relationship with an oppressive male. The last line is a statement of assertion and liberation. it says: “And bow wow to you.” The lyrics of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and “Dr. Feelgood” also convey a sharply contrasting attitude about women and their place in America. Students are asked to compare the lyrics of these songs and place them in the political and economic context of the times. What has the impact of sexism been on women, and how has resistance generated music of joy and optimism? Measuring how effectively the learning outcomes have been achieved. Students are asked on quizzes and exams about social diversity, social categories, structures of power, and their impact on the music, the artists, and the people who listened to it, danced to it, and found it affecting. They are expected to reveal their understanding of the paradox of music that is both so pained and so joyous and how and why it came to exist. .