Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course introduces the American art form of jazz music with a focus on cultural contexts, traditions, and musical elements. We will trace the cultural and societal impacts and connections of the music, and specific contributions of many of the genre's most influential musicians. We will use musicological techniques to examine improvisation and musical practices of various eras, styles, and significant artists.

Graded work will include:

• participation in robust weekly discussions
• weekly reading summaries
• one concert report on a jazz performance
• a written final project in which you analyze a specific jazz recording, and reflect on your learning over the term

The course involves extensive reading (40-50 pages/week), and uses a free textbook available through PCC Libraries' website: Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2021. https://alliance-pcc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_PCC/1c9ejtg/alma99331190245101451

Other readings, if required, will be made available as free .pdfs.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:
Analyze musical works from the canon of American jazz music for form, texture, and content through listening.
Apply approaches to musicological research to describe jazz music.
Discuss the historical and sociopolitical contexts for the major developments in jazz music.
Describe the diverse cultural communities that developed jazz music through a deeper knowledge of each group's musical expressions.