MUS 20800 History of Jazz

This course traces the history of jazz from its roots in Africa, through the fields of North American slavery and on to the big cities of the United States. Field hollers, work songs, the blues, ragtime, swing, bebop and contemporary forms are discussed in the context of regional styles emanating from the major cities of New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and New York. The innovations of master artists, from Louis Armstrong to Thelonious Monk, are interpreted from historical, sociological and musical perspectives.