Music History as Part of a Jazz Curriculum 

Music History. No two words seem to inspire more dread in music students than these. The battery of music history courses can often be among the most challenging and least rewarding in undergraduate and graduate curriculums alike. Among jazz students these courses are often more problematic because they require prolonged study of material only tacitly related to jazz topics. This is compounded by a general attitude among musicology professors that our music--jazz--does not deserve as close scrutiny as say…Read more

Make Me Smile: A brief look at Bob Brookmeyer and the modern big band 

            Bob Brookmeyer is an integral figure in jazz both in his role as a composer and performer as well as an educator. (Stewart 2007) (Robinson, 2002) (Argue 2009) Along with other pioneers of composition for large jazz ensembles such as Gill Evans, Brookmeyer has been integral in developing the modern jazz compositional style (Schneider 1998). Despite near universal acclaim for Brookmeyer's contributions, scholarship has been slow to recognize him and the modern big band as a viable source for…Read more