OnMusic Jazz offers learners a listening-based approach to the development of America’s unique art form. The course includes a comprehensive overview of the main repertoire with performers placed in their historical and cultural context through numerous musical selections and videos.

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Getting Started

Introduction
Course Preamble
Course Description Guide

Section 1: Fundamentals of Music and Jazz Foundations

Introduction

Music Basics I

Keyboard
Octave
Diatonic and Chromatic Scales
Staves and Clefs

Music Basics II

Pitch
Rhythm
Meter
Simple Meters
The Pickup and Syncopation
Summary

Section 2: Essential Features of Jazz and The Blues

Introduction

What Is Jazz?

Essential Features
Improvisation
Swing Feeling
Bluesy Flavor

The Blues

The Blues
Pitch Bending
Chords
Chord Progressions and Seventh Chords
12-Bar Form and Tonality
Listening Skills
Summary

Section 3: Basic Features and Origins of Jazz

Introduction

Basic Features in Jazz – Form and Timbre

Standard Forms
The Chorus
Jazz Performance
Horns
The Rhythm Section
Piano
Drums
Jazz Soloists
Summary of Jazz Instruments

Jazz Origins

Origins of Jazz
African-American Musical Traditions
New Orleans
Brass Bands and the Musicians of New Orleans
Ragtime
The Blues
Urban Blues
Call and Response

Section 4: Early Jazz to the Emergence of Swing

Introduction

Early Jazz

New Orleans Jazz
The Legend of Buddy Bolden
Jelly Roll Morton
Joe “King” Oliver
Sidney Bechet
Blue Horizon
New Orleans “Dixieland” Jazz
Chicago
Louis Armstrong

Struttin’ With Some Barbecue

Struttin’ With Some Barbecue
Scat Singing
Earl Hines
Bix Beiderbecke
Frankie “Tram” Trumbauer
From Chicago to New York
James P. Johnson
Harlem Stride Piano
Fats Waller
Toward Swing
Summary

Section 5: Jazz in the 30s and the Musicians Who Shaped It

Introduction

Swing in the 30s and Duke Ellington

Swing
Fletcher Henderson: Pioneer of Swing
Wrappin’ It Up
Coleman Hawkins: The first great tenor saxophonist
Django Reinhardt: The first great European jazz musician
Benny Carter and Roy Eldridge: Two masters of swing
Art Tatum: Keyboard virtuoso
Duke Ellington

The “Ellington Effect” – Ellington’s sidemen

The “Ellington Effect”
Bubber Miley and “Tricky Sam” Nanton
Cootie Williams
Johnny Hodges
Billy Strayhorn
Ben Webster
Jimmy Blanton
Ellington’s “Harlem Air Shaft”

Section 6: Swing in Chicago, New York, and Kansas City

Introduction

Goodman, Hampton, and Count Basie

Benny Goodman: The “King of Swing”
Charlie Christian: First great jazz electric guitarist
Lionel Hampton: Bandleader and first jazz vibraphonist
Kansas City
Count Basie: Pianist and Bandleader
Basie’s Riff-Based Compositions and Head Arrangements
Count Basie’s Band Rhythm Section
Lester Young: Superb saxophonist

Outstanding Soloists

Mary Lou Williams: Progressive pianist, composer, and arranger
Billie Holiday: “Lady Day”
Ella Fitzgerald: The FIrst Lady of Song
The Savoy Ballroom and Chick Webb
Fine and Mellow

Section 7: The Advent of Modern Jazz

Introduction

Bebop and the Advent of Modern Jazz

Modern Jazz
Bebop
Charlie Parker
Parker’s Style
Bebop, Ballads, and Blues
Dizzy Gillespie
Gillespie, Parker, and 52nd Street
Afro-Cuban Jazz

Jazz Big Bands

Jazz Big Bands
Bass
Drums
Trombone
Bud Powell: Epitome of the bop piano style
Thelonious Monk: A true jazz original
Monk’s “Misterioso”
Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle” and “Ruby, My Dear”
Sarah Vaughan: “The Divine One”

Cool Jazz

Introduction

Early Exponents of Cool Jazz

Cool Jazz
Miles Davis and The Birth of Cool
Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker
Lennie Tristano & Lee Konitz
1950 Metronome Magazine “All-Stars” Bands

Influential Figures in Cool Jazz

Stan Getz
West Coast Jazz: Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond
Jimmy Giuffre
Modern Jazz Quartet
Summary of Cool Jazz Musicians

Hard Bop

Introduction

Prominent Hard Bop Musicians

Hard Bop Style
Art Blakey
Horace Silver
Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins
Brown-Roach Quintet

Hard Bop in the mid-50s

Sonny Rollins’ “Blue Seven”
Miles Davis
Miles Davis Mid-50s Quintet
A Return to Cool
Cannonball Adderley
Organ and Guitar

Section 10: Jazz in the Late 50s and Early 60s

Introduction

Miles Davis, Modal Jazz, and Bill Evans

Miles Davis
Miles Davis Sextet, 1959
Modal Jazz
Davis’ “So What”
Davis’ “Flamenco Sketches”
Bill Evans
Bill Evans Trio

John Coltrane

John Coltrane
Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”
Coltrane’s Use of Pedal Points
The Classic Coltrane Quartet
‘Trane and the Soprano Saxophone
Coltrane’s Quartet “Alabama” and “A Love Supreme”
Toward Free JazzPage

Avant-garde and Free Jazz Musicians

Introduction

Coleman, Taylor, and Mingus

Free Jazz
Ornette Coleman
Coleman’s Quartet “The Shape of Jazz to Come”
Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”
Coleman’s “Congeniality”
Coleman’s “Free Jazz”
Cecil Taylor: Leading Pianist of Free Jazz
Charles Mingus: A more accessible avant-garde jazz
Mingus’ “Hora Decubitus”

Figures of Post-bop Jazz

Albert Ayler
Ayler’s “Ghosts: First Variation”
Coltrane’s Ascension and Collective Improvisation
Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968
Wayne Shorter’s “E.S.P.”
Toward Fusion: “Shorter’s Masqualero”
Herbie Hancock
Hancock’s “One Finger Snap”

Jazz Fusion

Introduction
Miles Davis and the Late 1960s
Davis’ “Bitches Brew”
Weather Report
Chick Corea
Return to Forever

Forever and Beyond

Forever and Beyond
John McLaughlin
Pat Metheny
Acid Jazz & Hip-Hop Fusion
Miles Davis Sidemen
Keith Jarrett
Summary of Jazz Musicians

Figures and Bands in Postmodern and Neo-classical Jazz

Introduction
Modernism in Jazz
Postmodernism in Jazz
Anthony Braxton
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
World Saxophone Quartet

Other Figures in Post-modern and Neo-classical Jazz

John Zorn
Zorn’s Band Masada
Wynton Marsalis and Neo-classicism in jazz
The Philosophy of Neo-classical Jazz
The Politics of Jazz
Summary

Section 14: Latin Jazz, Globalization of Jazz, and Other Recent Trends

Introduction

Latin Jazz Musicians and Other Important Figures

Latin Jazz
Tito Puente
Afro-Cuban Jazz
Arturo Sandoval
Michael Brecker
Branford Marsalis
Roy Hargrove

Into the 21st Century

Brad Mehldau
Nguyen Le
Cassandra Wilson
Diana Krall
Bill Frisell
Brian Blade
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Medeski, Martin & Wood
The Bad Plus