MUSIC26AC Homework

1. Listen to “Livery Stable Blues.” How should a group like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band be remembered as part of jazz history? In what ways would you frame the band and their first recording in relation to the racial dynamics of the tradition?

2. Listen to Louis Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues” and create a “map” of its major moments or changes, so that someone could use it as a guide while listening. Use the guide made for “Jazz Me Blues” found in the Media Notes. Chart at least five elements, such as when solos come in, when the ensemble plays together, what instruments are featured at different times, etc.

MUSIC26AC Homework

3. Listen to “King Porter Stomp” and “In the Mood.” Describe the major contours of each piece in a couple of sentences each. Think about Ogren’s argument about the changes between Dixieland and Swing jazz. Do you agree with this? Why or why not? Use examples from one or both pieces to back up your claim4. Watch I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You and consider the discourses around blackness jazz enabled. In what ways do you see the multiple ways jazz featured into the U.S. American imaginary portrayed?5. Given all of the reading and media this week, discuss what about jazz might have symbolized the coming of modernity to the U.S. to listeners of the 1920s. What does the sound of the music capture? How might it have depicted the major changes moving through U.S. society?6. List and describe three technological advances that impacted what was recorded as “jazz.”7. How does the black-white binary appear in the stories told in Forbidden City USA? Who spoke to this phenomenon and how did they navigate it? How does this relate to the distinction between genre and practice?8. In what ways do the model minority or exotic stereotypes of Asian Americans appear in the film? In what ways did the performers in the film stereotype other races or ethnicities? What might this say about racial projects?9. Drawing on Fracis Wong’s question, is Japanese swing U.S. American music? Argue for or against this point using evidence from the materials from this or past weeks.10. Are Asian Americans still silenced in the popular music industry? What about popular culture on a whole? What is similar or different today versus a century ago?