A Jazz History Course for the Information Era

Abstract:This paper provides a rationale for rethinking jazz history curricula in light of recent world events and social movements. It describes a theme-oriented jazz history course offered at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, that circumvents some of the pitfalls associated with teaching jazz history chronologically or stylistically. It also describes a jazz history card game developed in conjunction with the course and the midterm and final projects that integrate the thematic focus of the course with the card game. It concludes with summary remarks about the relationship of today's jazz history courses to jazz legitimation strategies within the academy.