MUSC2638: Jazz Riots and Revolutions

• Tutorial participation/demonstrated knowledge of required reading: You are expected to come to this seminar both on time and prepared. Evidence of preparation may include marginalia, insightful criticism or support of positions put forward in the required reading and questions that seek to develop a critical understanding of theoretical concepts outlined in assigned texts. Demonstrated knowledge will be assessed both formally (by way of circle quizzes) and informally (during the course of group discussions). Many of the concepts covered in the assigned readings are complex and you will likely benefit from reading articles and book chapters more than once.
• Early Feedback Task Listening Quiz: In this listening quiz, you will be introduced to some of the artists (and artistry) we will explore in this course. Each question contains an audio excerpt. After you listen to a question's audio excerpt, you will be asked a simple question about what you heard in the recording. There is no pre-requisite knowledge required to pass this quiz, but it is unlikely you will be able to pass it without listening to the audio excerpts carefully and in full. 
• Annotated bibliography: You will trace claims about a particular jazz artist or jazz work through a maximum of five and a minimum of three scholarly sources. Your aim is to demonstrate how authors have nuanced or debunked the opinions of their predecessors in relation to the artist/work that you choose. Pay particular attention to the argument each author uses and the sort of evidence they select. This will help you distinguish when authors echo each other and when they provide new insights. The 3-5 texts in your annotated bibliography must build on each other. While it is not necessary that the most recent text cites the initial text, a citation chain must exist connecting all of the texts that you present. Each entry must be preceded by a full citation of the text, formatted in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style. Students are required to BRING a hardcopy of their annotated bibliography to class in week 6.
• Annotated bibliography oral examination: Following a workshop in which we unpack how annotated bibliography entries build on each other, students will present the connections between the texts they have selected for their annotated bibliographies to the class.
• Research essay introduction: You will write a research essay that grows naturally out of your annotated bibliography. In this essay, you will survey the history of claims made about a particular artist or work, identify a gap or paradox in relation to these claims and propose a way this gap might be filled. The first part of this assignment is the essay introduction, due both in class and online in week 11. For the introduction, you will need to complete the following:

Your first paragraph should read like an abstract, summarizing the state of play, research gap (or paradox), methodology and findings (so what?) of your proposed paper.

Example from class workshop:


The history of jazz is often presented as a succession of musical geniuses and innovators, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker or Miles Davis, who, it is believed, single-handedly invented new styles and genres [State of play]. In truth, there were numerous musicians, composers and arrangers, active in hundreds of bands, who all helped to shape and alter the face of jazz. In the 1940s, a generally overlooked group explored a direction in which they merged turn-of-the-century European idioms and jazz into an ‘American impressionism,’ as it were [Research gap (or paradox)]. In the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Claude Thornhill and Duke Ellington, young composer-arrangers experimented with a new orchestral language [Filling the gap]. Their work turned out to be seminal for the development of the later ‘cool jazz’ genre [So what?] (Van de Leur 2001).

The rest of your introduction should expand on the first two areas:

1.) For example, in relation to the abstract above, our first set of paragraphs after this opening would discuss authors who present the history of jazz as a succession of musical geniuses [State of play].

2.) Our next section would point out how recent studies have complicated these readings by showing the influence of not only more minor figures but of economic and political pressures – taking a more socio-cultural approach to the study of the music (the Ramsey chapter read for week four comes to mind here)[Gap]. 

• Research questions oral examination: This open discussion about your state of play, gap, and research question will provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate the depth of your understanding about your seleted topic.
• Research essay: The remainder of your essay will expand on the third and fourth research steps.

3.) In relation to this model, the next section would discuss how the economic pressures of the late 1940s pushed Raeburn, Thornhill and Ellington to develop a type of music that would reach out to new audiences (discussion of Baker and Floyd would be good here). Musical analysis would go into this section [Filling the gap].

4.) The final section would sum up this data and explain how it complicates the standard mythology of jazz - that Miles Davis was the “inventor” of cool jazz [So what?].

Hints: Identify what you see as a paradox or research gap FIRST. Then plan what you are going to do. Then draft your opening paragraph.