The Culture of Jazz Aesthetics

(Instructors: Profs. Kenny Burrell & Alessandro Duranti)

ASSIGNMENT on JAZZ PERFORMANCE (for your SECOND PROJECT):

[Updated June 4, 2006]

READ CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

This assignment has two parts. The first part can be done individually or in a group. The second part must be done individually.

PART ONE:

ATTEND ONE OF THE FOLLOWING JAZZ SHOWS: (1) End of the quarter performance by UCLA jazz combos (June 5, 7pm, in the Schoenberg Auditorium) or (2) End of the quarter show by the two UCLA Jazz Ensembles (June 6, 7pm in the Schoenberg Auditorium).

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH TASK. You need to carefully observe the performance, take notes whenever appropriate, and collect whatever relevant materials (e.g. program with names of players, songs performed, etc.) in order to address the following TOPICS:

1. COMMUNICATION. In what sense can you say that the musicians were "communicating" while playing?

2.COLLABORATION. In what sense can you say that the musicians were collaborating on the stage?

3. CREATIVITY. In what sense can you say that the musicians were being "creative" while playing?

Requirements. In addressing these three topics make sure to rely on (i) your observations, (ii) your fieldnotes during the show you attended, (you're your fieldnotes throughout the quarter, and (iv) the readings.

GROUP: If you do this part of the assignment as a group (2-4 students), you need to write a total of 2000 words.

INDIVIDUAL: If you do this first part of the assignment individually, you need to write 1,000 words.

N.B. Students who are jazz musicians and are performing, can either participate with a group (and give the "insider's perspective") or write their own report from the point of view of a performer in the show.

WRITTEN REPORT. Think of this assignment as a research REPORT. If you are working with a GROUP, first pull together the information collected by all members of your group (you might want to divide some of the tasks during the performance) and, after discussing each point among yourselves, organize your answers to the questions above sequentially, without worrying about fancy metaphors or beautiful opening and closing paragraphs.

Whether you do this individually or collectively, remember that you will be rewarded for having been concise and to the point while showing that you worked hard at finding out something you didn't know before. What matters is how you go about making some interesting observations that might lead you to formulate some hypotheses about the culture of jazz aesthetics. We want you to enter the logic of jazz culture and aesthetics, as we try to do in class, when we interview musicians. We are not interested in an involved and involving narrative of your experience (that might be fun to do and read but it's not part of this particular assignment). We are interested in your analytical skills and more precisely in your ability to interpret the interaction during the performance mostly through the analytical lenses of the concepts that were introduced in the readings and in class. Don't give us fillers, don't try to be cute, and don't try to fake it. Don't write a lot to fill the page. Remember that for jazz musicians “less is (generally) more.” But don't be so brief that a reader won't know what to get out of what you wrote or why you made a particular generalization.

PART TWO:

WRITING UP FIELDNOTES.

You need to go back to the fieldnotes you took throughout the quarter, choose the best set of fieldnotes (covering ONE MEETING with guests - NOT the lectures by Prof. Duranti) and WRITE IT UP as a text that is informative and interesting. In other words, you are asked to create a TEXT out of whatever notes you took. This means that you cannot ADD information that you didn't write down, unless this information became available to you later (in which case, you need to say so). But you CAN and you SHOULD add your REFLECTIONS, SPECULATIONS, INTUITIONS about what you wrote down so as to suggest possible HYPOTHESES (for further research) on the CULTURE OF JAZZ AESTHETICS.

Total number of words for Part Two: 1000.

* TURNING IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT.

Include:

(i) A COVER PAGE for the FIRST PART with the NAME (or NAMES) of all the authors;

(ii) The text of the First Part (typed, double spaced) (if it's a group project, you only need to do this ONCE (which means that some of the people who worked in a group will only need to turn in the SECOND PART) (number of words: 1000 for individual and 2000 for group);

(iii) A COVER PAGE for the SECOND PART with YOUR NAME and the DATE of the class meeting that you have written about.

A photocopy of the fieldnotes you took for the day you are covering.

The text of the second part. (1000 words).

TURN IN THE ASSIGNMENT by Monday June 12 at 3pm in the Anthropology Main Office (third floor of Haines Hall).