Here are the good times to be had this semester:
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February 8:
The Jazz idea before it is codified as a more particular art. The precursors: Minstrelsy, ragtime – Bert Williams, Al Jolson, Scott Joplin, Ethel Waters, James Reece Europe, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith.
Films: St. Louis Blues, Minstrel Days, Fleischer cartoons, Steamboat Willie.
Reading: Michael Ondaaje (begin reading), James Jones Story
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February 15:
New Orleans – dance, blues, Dr. Jazz, Cake Walking Babies. The Great Migration – North to Chicago, West to LA and SF, East to New York.
Coming Thru Slaughter, New Orleans, Birth of the Blues
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February 22:
Orchestrated music, big bands, Broadway revues, Tin Pan Alley, sheet music singers, vaudeville. Whiteman, Henderson, Ellington-stride piano.
Young Man with a Horn, Ellington films, Blues in the Night, Blue Melody (J.D. Salinger); Langston Hughes; Snow White in Harlem (Artie Shaw?)
Read Jazz NY/Ellington Chapters.
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March 1:
Armstrong and Crosby; internationalism
Ellison/The Bass Saxophone (novella), Pennies from Heaven (film), short films, Looney Tunes, Jazzman (USSR film)
Have read at least the introduction to “The Invisible Man”
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March 8
The Swing Era, radio.
Hollywood Hotel, Sweet and Low Down, Ball of Fire/Sing is Born (H. Hawkes), Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minelli film), Powerhouse (Eudora Welty)
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March 15
Bop Charlie Parker
Sonny’s Blues (James Baldwin), The Pursuer (Cortezar), Sparrow’s Last Jump (Elliot Grennard), Kerouac (maybe), Bird (Clint Eastwood film), Sweet Love Bitter
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March 22
Bop II: Jazz Modernism
The Connection (play by Jack Gelber), Shadows (John Cassavettis film)
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March 29
Rhythm and Blues, Louis Jordan, Nat Cole, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry; bop and cubop.
Chico and Rita (animated film), Dancing to Almendra (Mayra Montero novel)
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April 5
The Affluent Society; mainstream vocals, television, movies
The swing feature films, Louis and Bernstein (NY Philharmonic videos), Route 66 (TV, episode with Ethel Waters), On the Road (Kerouac), Pete Kelly’s Blues (film) and Pork Pie Hat (Peter Straub)
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April 12
Miles, the new legends
Man Walking on Eggshells (Herbert Simmons), The Horn (Holmes), A Man Called Adam (Leo Penn film, Benny Carter score)
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May 3
Jazz as art and tragedy, internationalism, justice.
Shadows (film), Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Mal film), Anatomy of a Murder (O. Preminger film), All Night Long (film about Gene Krupa), Be-Bop Re-Bop (Xam Wilson Cartier), short stories by Wanda Coleman and Michelle Clift
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SPRING BREAK (4/17-4/26)
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May 10
Fusion/the legends.
Round Midnight (film, watch it earlier)
Politics: Hip-hop, jazz classicism.
Passing Through
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May 17
[Presentations]
Current reflections on jazz in the culture.
