Spring 2012 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.

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Single tickets available for all classes. For questions on pricing or enrollment, call 212-258-9922 or email swingu@jalc.org.

"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

All classes are held at the Irene Diamond Education Center

Spring 2012 Term

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JAZZ 201 with Phil Schaap

8 Monday Nights: 3/26, 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, & 5/21; 6:30pm-8:30pm

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.

4 Monday Nights: 3/26, 4/2, 4/9, & 4/16; 6:30pm-8:30pm

Jelly Roll Morton, a New Orleanian Jazz pioneer, was the music’s first great composer. Morton’s composing made jazz a fully developed music, adding repertoire. Jelly Roll Morton, the pianist, was one of the new music’s greatest ad-libbers. Terry Waldo will explain it all to you, often demonstrating his point from his seat at the piano.

4 Monday Nights: 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, & 5/21; 6:30pm -8:30pm

Jazz is still in the era of its prophets and what better way to profit from that than to have Duke Ellington’s granddaughter teach you about The Maestro.

7 Tuesday Nights: 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 5/1, 5/8, & 5/15 with optional final on 5/22; 6:30pm-9:30pm

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 a week after the last class and outstanding students will receive a certificate signed by Wynton Marsalis and Phil Schaap.

8 Wednesday Nights: 3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/9, & 5/16; 6:30pm-8:30pm

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra trombonist Vincent Gardner becomes Swing University’s first core curriculum course teacher, in addition to Phil Schaap, teaching Jazz 101 this Spring term. 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.