Improvising in the Birthplace of Jazz

What gives New Orleans its special character? Its flavor? Its texture? Its sound? Is it the beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, or the mansions in the Garden District? Is it the Shotgun...

Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....

Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...

Designed as a teacher resource, a packet identifies resources and approaches instructors can use to incorporate jazz into their history classes. Materials are identified by historical era, from the roots of jazz prior to World War I to...

After listening to a variety of interpretations of "When the Saints Go Marching In," partners compose and then perform their own renditions of this classic before joining a full-class jam session.

Students explore development of jazz music in the 1930s by forming imaginary jazz bands which tour several cities in Depression-era America. Jazz band members create imaginary identities for themselves, develop publicity for their tour,...

A collection of videos directs viewers through a series of seven videos detailing all things jazz. Video topics include how to play, its forms, rhythm, syncopation, swing, improvisation, and explores the rhythm, horn, and wind sections.  

Learners explore the various rhythmic combinations in jazz and blues music. They watch a video segment, apply a mathematical formula to calculate the number of possible rhythmic combinations, and perform a combination of notes and...

Students participate in a class discussion about jazz music, compare improvisation with regular conversion, listen to various jazz musicians and compare and contrast their individual sounds.

Learners observe that there are myriad combinations of rhythms to choose from when improvising jazz and blues music, and recognize that while the variations seem infinite, they are in fact finite. They notate a 12 bar blues progression...