School of Music
P.O. Box 26170
UNC Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
(336) 334-5789 OFFICE
(336) 334-5497 FAX

e-mail: music@uncg.edu

Jazz History

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Current Syllabi for Jazz Courses can be found on the UNCG Blackboard Course Managment System

MILES DAVIS PROGRAM IN JAZZ STUDIES
MUS 660 Jazz History

Dr. John Salmon, Room 332
334-5431; jcsalmon@uncg.edu

TIME & PLACE

Wednesdays, 5:00-7:50 pm, Room 233
(one fifteen minute break, 6:00 - 6:30 pm)

DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to acquaint upper-class undergraduate and graduate music majors with that vibrant, tangled musical tradition known as jazz. The majority of the course will the presented by students themselves, in 60 -minute lectures about individual jazz masters. Although a certain number of texts and recordings are available in the UNCG Music Library, each student must be prepared to exercise considerable initiative in acquiring sources in the preparation of lectures.

PREREQUISITES

MUS 206, 301, 331, 332, 333 (If you haven't had these courses, you don't belong here)

ATTENDANCE

There is no attendance policy other than to show up on the days of your lectures and for the final exam. If you don't show up at those times, you get zero credit.

GRADES

1st presentation 20%
2nd presentation 20%
Paper 20%
(see me for details)
Final Exam 40%

I will grade each presentation on poise of delivery, organization of material, comprehensiveness of treatment, adequacy of recorded examples to illustrate key points, and evidence of esthetic discernment. Don't be afraid to say, for example, that Louis Armstrong's most significant recordings occurred 1928-30 or that Miles Davis capitulated to crassly commercialistic concerns in the 1980's- as long as you can back up these statements with informed arguments.

Heed my advice in the handout "Tips for Presentations."

TAPES

Since a good portion of the final exam will test your ability to identify audio excerpts, each presenter must be willing to duplicate the audio examples from his/her presentation, and make those copies available to other class members on the day of the presentation! Give empty 45 - minute cassette tapes to each presenter, one for each presentation. Presenters who have not duplicated tapes (by the day of the presentation) will not be allowed to take the audio portion of the final exam.

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