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CS92PROD
Jazz Avant-Gardes
MUSC 277
Fall 2021 not offered

This course will explore the emergence of an avant-garde in jazz in the 1950s and 60s, including earlier efforts and later developments in the preceding and succeeding decades. We will take a holistic approach, examining the music and its surrounding community within the broader social and cultural currents of 1950s and '60s America, especially that of European-inherited avant-garde aesthetics, the increasingly urgent Civil Rights Movement and changing notions of freedom, and artist collectives in the U.S. and Europe. Key artists will include Monk, Coleman, Taylor, Sun Ra, Coltrane, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bailey, and Braxton, among others. We will immerse ourselves in a combination of reading, listening to recordings, discussion, and in-class performances. Throughout the semester, we will pursue the parallel goals of using this era in jazz to expand our understanding of avant-garde movements in general and using historical avant-garde movements to expand our understanding of how the phenomenon has played out in jazz. The first two weeks will function as a Jazz 101 boot camp, and so no prior experience in jazz is required.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA MUSC
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AMST)(MUSC)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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