Fall 2010 Term | Winter 2011 Term | Spring 2011 Term
Swing University explains jazz, its development, and how to be an effective listener. Class members learn how to follow song form, understand the roles of soloists within the ensemble in a jazz performance, and explore the significant events in the music's history. Taught with the help of special guest lecturers, Swing University offers a wide range of courses to suit all jazz lovers from novices to jazz cats.
Swing University Fall 2010 Open House
Come learn what Swing University has to offer at a FREE Open House on Tuesday, September 7, 6pm.
This event will introduce you to Phil Schaap and some of the faculty of Swing University and give you an overview of the upcoming courses. For more info, and to RSVP for the FREE Open House for the Fall Term of Swing University, click here.
To enroll in a class, complete and fax this form to 212.258.9900 or call 212.258.9786.
"I won't teach you trumpet or piano or drums, but I'll teach you the history, the context, the culture, while telling you some good stories."
— Phil Schaap, Jazz at Lincoln Center Curator
Fall 2010 Term
JAZZ 101 with Phil Schaap
Monday Nights: 9/13; 9/20; 9/27; 10/4; 10/18; 10/25; 11/1; & 11/8/10
Discover the A to Z of jazz. Learn about the Crescent City pioneers who taught musicians everywhere how to swing and the Big Band Era heartthrobs who brought jazz into prime time. Relive the bebop revolution and follow its descendents—cool, hard bop, modal and free jazz—into the modern era.
JAZZ 201 with Phil Schaap
Wednesday Nights: 9/15; 9/22; 9/29; 10/6; 10/13; 10/20; 10/27; & 11/3/10
These in-depth sessions will open your ears to the music of known and lesser-known masters. How did King Oliver help invent the jazz solo? What was Bill Evans' role in Miles Davis' Kind of Blue? In Jazz 201 you'll learn to hear the details.
LENNIE’S LISTENING LESSONS with Connie Crothers
Tuesday Nights: 9/21; 9/28; 10/5; 10/12; 10/19; 10/26; 11/2; & 11/9/10
Lennie Tristano, a virtuoso Jazz pianist and a primary performer in the BeBop and Cool years of the 1940s and 1950s, was also a, perhaps the, pioneer in Jazz education. Tristano’s students were almost always musicians but the core of his curriculum is accessible to anybody. Lennie Tristano had his students listen to: Lester Young (1936-1941), Billie Holiday (primarily in The Swing Era), Roy Eldridge, Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, and Bud Powell (1944-1953). Lennie Tristano’s credo was: if you listened to these artists, then you would know Jazz. Connie Crothers, a virtuoso Jazz pianist, has been the central teacher of Lennie’s Listening Lessons since Tristano’s death in 1978. She will explain why these artists provide the essence of Jazz and how Tristano guided the listener to their music. Lennie’s Listening Lessons is taught for Swing University by the great musician and teacher Connie Crothers.
DIZZY GILLESPIE with Boo Frazier
Wednesday Nights: 11/10; 11/17; 12/1; & 12/8/10
Swing University attendees: we still live in the Age of the Jazz Prophets. Boo Frazier, Dizzy Gillespie’s nephew, will prove it as he exposes us to Dizzy’s world and music from a primary, first-hand perspective.
From the end of the 1940s, when Dizzy Gillespie’s BeBop band was still touring until Dizzy’s death at age 75 on January 6, 1993, Boo Frazier was right there with him. Mr. Frazier produced many of Dizzy’s albums and hosted a number of broadcasts during which he would interview his illustrious relative. Boo Frazier has also been aiding Jazz at Lincoln Center from the very beginning. Boo’s told Wynton Marsalis about Dizzy Gillespie. Now let him have a chance to tell you.
DRUMS AND THE RHYTHM SECTION with Lewis Nash
Monday Nights: 11/29; 12/6; 12/13; & 12/20/10
Drumming giant Lewis Nash will guide you to understand the workings of the rhythm section and the musical blending that distinguishes great rhythm sections. This course will help you recognize drum stylists such as Art Blakey, Bid Sid Catlett, Papa Jo Jones and Max Roach.
JAZZ 201 with Phil Schaap
Monday Nights: 1/24; 1/31; 2/7; 2/14; 2/28; 3/7; 3/14; & 3/21/11
These in-depth sessions will open your ears to the music of known and lesser-known masters. How did King Oliver help invent the jazz solo? What was Bill Evans' role in Miles Davis' Kind of Blue? In Jazz 201 you'll learn to hear the details.
THELONIOUS MONK: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC with Dr. Larry Ridley
Tuesday Nights: 1/25; 2/1; 2/8; 2/15; 2/22; 3/1; 3/8; & 3/15/11
Bassist extraordinaire, Dr. Larry Ridley, Professor of Music-Emeritus, Rutgers University will conduct a unique journey through the life and music of pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The topics covered will speak to Ridley's personal experiences as bassist with Thelonious, their travels together and friendship, Monk’s family and his music. Audio/visual materials will be utilized. Recommended reference text: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley (Free Press).
JAZZ 301 with Phil Schaap
Wednesday Nights: 1/26; 2/2; 2/9; 2/16; 2/23; 3/2; & 3/9/11 with an optional final exam on 3/16/11
NOTE: This is a three hour class and a seven week course.
You may know of King Oliver, but what about Freddie Keppard? Can you distinguish John Coltrane from Sonny Rollins by ear? These intensive three-hour classes will help you answer these questions as we chart the same Jazz 101 and 201 trajectory but in greater depth. An optional final will be given two weeks after the last class and outstanding students will receive a certificate signed by Wynton Marsalis and Phil Schaap.
JAZZ 301 with Phil Schaap
Monday Nights: 3/28; 4/4; 4/11; 4/25; 5/2; 5/9; & 5/16/11 with an optional final exam on 5/23/11
NOTE: This is a three hour class and a seven week course.
You may know of King Oliver, but what about Freddie Keppard? Can you distinguish John Coltrane from Sonny Rollins by ear? These intensive three-hour classes will help you answer these questions as we chart the same Jazz 101 and 201 trajectory but in greater depth. An optional final will be given two weeks after the last class and outstanding students will receive a certificate signed by Wynton Marsalis and Phil Schaap.
FREE JAZZ with Ben Young
Tuesday Nights: 3/29; 4/5; 4/12; 4/26; 5/3; 5/10; 5/17; & 5/24/11
“There are no rules in art.” This wise precept of the late trumpeter Bill Dixon will be one of the guiding principles for our 8-week study of the history, mechanics, and aesthetics of the music referred to as Free Jazz, just as this philosophy has driven the body of work by Dixon and his contemporaries who shaped the style: Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Milford Graves, and their collaborators. The course will introduce the breakthroughs and masterpieces of these essential figures, within the greater arc of the rise and development of the music as the Fifties became the Sixties, and its pivotal first decade. Entering his third decade of broadcasting Free Jazz on New York radio, Ben Young continues work on the forthcoming volume, A New Energy: Cause and Effect in the Music of Cecil Taylor.
JAZZ 101 with Phil Schaap
Wednesday Nights: 3/30; 4/6; 4/13; 4/20; 4/27; 5/4; 5/11; & 5/18/11
Discover the A to Z of jazz. Learn about the Crescent City pioneers who taught musicians everywhere how to swing and the Big Band Era heartthrobs who brought jazz into prime time. Relive the bebop revolution and follow its descendents—cool, hard bop, modal and free jazz—into the modern era.
BEBOP with Vincent Gardner
Wednesday Nights: 3/30; 4/6; 4/13; 4/20; 4/27; 5/4; 5/11; & 5/18/11
Virtuosity, fuller harmonies and a new rhythmic sense established this sound as a new type of jazz. Join JLCO trombonist Vincent Gardner for a close look at how Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie paved the way for other masters of this innovative sound.
