BRATTLEBORO-Beginning Friday, Sept. 26, the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) will host the Jazz listening and history series, Jazz 101. The course was developed at Jazz at Lincoln Center 25 years ago.
Jazz 101 will meet for eight weekly sessions on Mondays at VJC headquarters at Cotton Mill Hill, on Fridays from 10 a.m. until noon, between Sept. 26 and Nov.14.
The sessions will embrace the breadth of how Jazz music works and where it came from - and also how it fits into our culture, and where Jazz is going.
Although it's a curated, organized, listening-and-lecture course, the emphasis is on demystifying Jazz content for beginners.
"We introduce basic terms, fundamental concepts, and cornerstone figures in the music. […] We listen closely to the swinging, essential masterpiece recordings of Jazz," organizers said in a news release. "Are you curious, or even skeptical? Let's face it: Jazz can be a little daunting, hard to grasp, or obscure. Jazz 101 won't try to make you into a great Jazz musician, but into a great listener - comfortable to understand and appreciate what you're hearing."
The course is free to all. Register at vtjazz.org/101/. There's no test, no homework, no entrance exam, no audition, no roll-call - no stress. Just great sounds and stories about them.
Instructor Ben Young has been teaching Jazz history for more than three decades. Young is a lecturer, researcher, producer, radio host, archivist, and writer - and a "Jazz crusader at large," say organizers. This will be the first offering of the course in Vermont.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.