The elaborate charts are exchanged for more solo improvisation, the large orchestras are exchanged for small combos, the tuxedos are traded in for zoot suits, shades, and berets. Emphasis will be on Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonius Monk. Readings will be assigned from Reading Jazz. All of the jazz styles and repertoire from the past are still in current practice and also available through recordings. However, jazz is not a stagnant art form, and through personal experimentation and cross pollination with other musical styles, new sounds, techniques, approaches, and forms are continuously redefined and invented.
Jazz is the living embodiment of democracy.
In a remarkable bit of irony, the one people denied freedom for so long are the ones who built a musical language based on freedom. In this search for musical freedom, the pendulum swings back and forth between structure and improvisation, between order and chaos, between traditionalism and experimentalism. This last unit will entail a brief survey of hard bop, avant garde, free jazz, fusion, and new traditionalism. We will concentrate on music by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Wynton Marsalis. Reading will be assigned from Reading Jazz.