A Celebration of Women in Jazz: A Critical Analysis of Gender
ENVS 256
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 256 |
How can we take the lessons of Jazz with us into other spaces? In this course, students will study Women in Jazz and examine the broad impact of our social structures and power systems to consider how the lessons of Jazz can help us navigate our future. How can we take the values of Jazz, such as improvisation, listening skills, democracy, a celebration of diversity, and equity work, and use our agency to effect change for the better in our communities? This course will examine the traditionally male-dominated nature of Jazz, its history of misogyny, and underrepresentation of women and other gender expressions. Students will learn in general about the musical art form of Jazz, its history as Black American Music, and its unique qualities including improvisation, the blues, and swing. There will be a strong focus on listening to music from women musicians, and students will learn how to actively listen to jazz and all music. Together, we will look at case studies of successful women musicians and composers from the history of Jazz through the present, reading biographical information and reviewing their performance and compositional contributions. Musicians may include Mary Lou Williams, Carla Bley, Terri Lynn Carrington, esperanza spalding, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Melba Liston, Lil' Hardin Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Abbey Lincoln, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Marian McPartland. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENVS |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Excerpts may be taken from: Angela Davis - Women, Race, and Class; Blues Legacies and Black Feminism; Reddan, Herzig, Kahr ¿ The Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender; Hamer, Minors - The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond; Placksin ¿ American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present; Buscatto ¿ Women in Jazz: Musicality, Femininity, Marginalization; Stein ¿ Women in Jazz: The Women, The Legends & Their Fight; Van Vleet - Women in Jazz Music: A Hundred Years of Gender Disparity in Jazz Study and Performance (1920¿2020) (Scholarly Journal); Rustin, Tucker - Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies; Gourse ¿ Madame Jazz; Dahl - Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women; Brewer ¿ Changing the Tune: The Kansas City Women¿s Jazz Festival, 1978-1985; Kernodle - Most of My Sheroes Don¿t Appear on a Stamp: Contextualising the Contributions of Women Musicians to the Progression of Jazz; Russell-Brown ¿ Little Melba and Her Big Trombone; Carrington - Three of a Kind: The Allen Carrington Spalding Trio; Leder - Women In Jazz, A Discography of Instrumentalists in 1913-1968. Other biographical writings on select artists may include Lil¿ Hardin Armstrong, Anita O¿Day, Mary Lou Williams, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian McPartland, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington, Alice Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, and more.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Assignments will include musical listening, reading texts, writing, presenting, discussing, and the option of a non-traditional creative project. We will take one field trip to hear a live concert of women jazz artist(s). Students will reflect in writing and in discussions on their individual experiences. Reading assignments will be followed by either discussion or informal written analysis. Writing assignments will consist of textual analysis, personal reflections, and/or creative exploration. The culminating project will have options of either an Essay or other Creative Project as fulfillment. Details: Weekly musical listening assignments; Weekly reading assignments; Weekly writing assignments; Film viewing assignments; Presentations; Discussions, reflections, and participation; Midterm - Option of Essay or non-traditional creative project ¿ Details TBA; Final: Essay on application of concepts (5-7pages); Other final exam - TBA. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Field trip to a jazz performance by women artists. |
| Instructor(s): Coss,Roxy Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: 284 HIGH; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 8 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 0 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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