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The Culture of Jazz Aesthetics Anthropology 148a: Language and the Culture of Art Instructors: Profs. Kenny Burrell and Alessandro Duranti Spring 2004 / Tuesday 11-2PM / SMB 1343 First Assignment Think of this assignment as the first step in a longer term project aimed at identifying a vocabulary of the language of jazz. To do this, you will need to document how our guests (and Prof. Burrell) talk about what they do when they play jazz or how they think about the music they compose, perform, and listen to. This language of jazz is likely to be full of words and expressions, especially metaphors, that are revealing of jazz aesthetics as a cultural tradition. As an ethnographer of the jazz community , it is your job to document these expressions. Part I. Identify the musical metaphors used in the following quotes from the first meeting of our class and provide a brief exegesis of their meaning based on your fieldnotes from class discussion and from any other resource you might have access to, including local experts (I am sure there must be some jazz musicians around the corner!). (1) When musicians are playing like they just did. I would phrase it for lack of a better term as the understanding of a harmonic story. or harmonic format. (K. Burrell, April 6, 2004); (2) (2) So sometimes I'll play a Bb dominant 7 chord with some altered notes to give it some spice to give it some color. (Tom Ranier, April 6, 2004) Part 2. Do the same with another 3 metaphors that you managed to capture in your field notes during the class discussion. This assignment is due , typed, double spaced, in class at the beginning of next meeting (April 13, 2004) (DO NOT SEND IT VIA E-MAIL). Make sure to include YOUR NAME and MAJOR at the top of each typed page. |