Jazz 101
APR 6 - MAY 25, 2021
7:00 PM
Tickets: $10/$7 Members for individual class; $56/$40 Members for All 8 Classes
(For members, please contact our Box Office to receive the member discount code)
This virtual class will take place on Zoom. Register today & receive the zoom link.
Taught by jazz researcher and educator Ben Young, Jazz 101 is a survey of the history of Jazz music, held over eight two-hour sessions—one per week. The course is designed for listeners at all experience levels: Using historic Jazz recordings we illustrate where the music came from, how it works, and how the styles have evolved. We will also explore Jazz in the socio-historical context of 20th Century America. The essential part of course is great music and the rich stories of the figures who shaped the music. It’s a lecture format, but no question is too basic. No papers, no tests, no entrance requirements, no one will call on you in class. Just check in and dig the sounds.
Week 1 (4/6/2021, 7 PM ET): Introduction & Back Story - Overview of the course, and the prehistory of Jazz (Music by Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and others)
Week 2 (4/13/2021, 7 PM ET): Jazz in New Orleans - The mechanics of the New Orleans Polyphony in context of New Orleans culture (music by King Oliver, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and others)
Week 3 (4/20/2021, 7 PM ET): The Jazz Age - Hot Dance bands and small groups on records in the 1920s. (Music of Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong and others)
Week 4 (4/27/2021, 7 PM ET): The Swing Era - Big bands ruled the earth, the charts and the airwaves (Music by Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday)
Week 5 (5/4/2021, 7 PM ET): Bebop - The intense new groove of the 1940s (Music by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie)
Week 6 (5/11/2021, 7 PM ET): Expansion - The new variants and ideas of the 1950s (Music by Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and others)
Week 7 (5/18/2021, 7 PM ET): Fusions - The blending of Jazz with Rock, Latin music, and Classical (Music by Machito, John Lewis, and others)
Week 8 (5/25/2021, 7 PM ET): Jazz Today - Jazz up to now (Music of Quincy Jones, Cassandra Wilson and others)
Instructor Ben Young has spent 25 years doing first-person research into the history of Jazz music. On New York’s WKCR-FM he hosted programs covering the gamut of Jazz and modern improvised music. Since 2010, he has taught courses in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University program. Young has produced, annotated or researched several hundred historical jazz reissues, most prominently for Triple Point Records, which he founded in 2009. He is presently director of the Jazz History Database at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Ben Young’s forthcoming biography of pianist Cecil Taylor will be published in 2022.
(For members, please contact our Box Office to receive the member discount code)
This virtual class will take place on Zoom. Register today & receive the zoom link.
Taught by jazz researcher and educator Ben Young, Jazz 101 is a survey of the history of Jazz music, held over eight two-hour sessions—one per week. The course is designed for listeners at all experience levels: Using historic Jazz recordings we illustrate where the music came from, how it works, and how the styles have evolved. We will also explore Jazz in the socio-historical context of 20th Century America. The essential part of course is great music and the rich stories of the figures who shaped the music. It’s a lecture format, but no question is too basic. No papers, no tests, no entrance requirements, no one will call on you in class. Just check in and dig the sounds.
Week 1 (4/6/2021, 7 PM ET): Introduction & Back Story - Overview of the course, and the prehistory of Jazz (Music by Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and others)
Week 2 (4/13/2021, 7 PM ET): Jazz in New Orleans - The mechanics of the New Orleans Polyphony in context of New Orleans culture (music by King Oliver, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and others)
Week 3 (4/20/2021, 7 PM ET): The Jazz Age - Hot Dance bands and small groups on records in the 1920s. (Music of Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong and others)
Week 4 (4/27/2021, 7 PM ET): The Swing Era - Big bands ruled the earth, the charts and the airwaves (Music by Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday)
Week 5 (5/4/2021, 7 PM ET): Bebop - The intense new groove of the 1940s (Music by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie)
Week 6 (5/11/2021, 7 PM ET): Expansion - The new variants and ideas of the 1950s (Music by Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and others)
Week 7 (5/18/2021, 7 PM ET): Fusions - The blending of Jazz with Rock, Latin music, and Classical (Music by Machito, John Lewis, and others)
Week 8 (5/25/2021, 7 PM ET): Jazz Today - Jazz up to now (Music of Quincy Jones, Cassandra Wilson and others)
Instructor Ben Young has spent 25 years doing first-person research into the history of Jazz music. On New York’s WKCR-FM he hosted programs covering the gamut of Jazz and modern improvised music. Since 2010, he has taught courses in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University program. Young has produced, annotated or researched several hundred historical jazz reissues, most prominently for Triple Point Records, which he founded in 2009. He is presently director of the Jazz History Database at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Ben Young’s forthcoming biography of pianist Cecil Taylor will be published in 2022.