ASRC 4258 - Jazz and the Common Wind: Afro-Caribbean and African American Dialogues

(crosslisted) MUSIC 4258, SHUM 4258
(GHB) (ALC-AS, HA-AS, HST-AS)

Spring. 3-4 credits, variable. Student option grading.

B. Barson.

Jazz and the Common Wind: Afro-Caribbean/African American Dialogues thinks through Julius Scott’s theorization of “the common wind’ of resistance in the age of the Haitian Revolution to consider the transnational historical impact jazz music and the social and political resonance surrounding the music’s history–how the music and its musicians articulated a common-sense cultural response to their societal environments. Students will learn not only how the music is structured and organized, but also what it meant and how it signified for Afro-American and Caribbean communities at various times. Key themes include plantation capitalism, transnationalism, hybridity, the Black radical tradition, and musicking. In this class, jazz is presented not merely as a historical genre, but a space for interaction and communication across the African diaspora and colonial subalterns.