MUSC 107 - History of Jazz

Credits: 5
Jazz is the first uniquely American music and has a rich and exciting history, as well as a profound impact on American and world culture. Introduces the students to jazz as a body of music and as a product of a fascinating dialog within and between cultural spheres: African diasporic, American, and African-American.

Satisfies Requirement: Humanities/Fine Arts/English and Diversity

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Identify musical styles and genres instrumental to the formation of jazz.
Identify instrumentation important to the development of the history of jazz.
Identify the origins and influences of jazz music (e.g. field cries, blues, Christian hymns).
Investigate issues of marginalization, cultural appropriation, and oppression in the formation of racial identity and expression (e.g. blackface minstrelsy, rural and Delta blues).
Examine how music is used as resistance against oppression (e.g. cool jazz, free jazz, bebop).
Discuss the impact of jazz on American popular culture and world music cultures.
Identify musicians notable to the development of jazz music (e.g. Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker).

Program Outcomes

Demonstrate a knowledge of historical genres and styles beyond current trends in Performing Arts.
Demonstrate responsibility by one or more of the following: attendance, assignment completion, final project or performance completion.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.