OLLI-MUSC-7056 - Jazz Stories: The Roots & Rhythms of Our American Music

Course Description

This course explores the origins and evolution of the quintessentially American form of music we call Jazz.  It includes both stories and songs that bring the genre to life. Professional musicians provide the commentary and then play pieces that illustrate how it evolved.  Jazz is very much a reflection of its time. It tells the stories of how musicians expressed the range of cultural and sensory experiences in  their own lives.  It moved through churches and fields and on to the cities which became gathering places for the music, melding America's various cultures and eras.  Jazz burst out of its initial roots and became a global phenomenon, while still being acknowledged as an American treasure. Many famous musicians acknowledge the powerful impact it had on their own song writing and performances.