About Jazz Cities

The Jazz Cities curriculum takes students on a chronological exploration of African American jazz through the site specific lens of each city the nurtured its development. Students learn the biographies and music of jazz luminaries like New Orleans’ King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Kansas City’s Count Basie, Lester Young and Charlie Parker, and Washington DC’s Duke Ellington whose music grew within these urban centers. Students learn to perform key songs from each musician’s repertoire, and the history of African Americans in each city adapted for voice, recorder, classroom percussion and Orff instruments. Within the context of this curriculum, students learn the history of the Great Migration, through mapping activities, documentary film, plays and the art of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden and others.
 
This curriculum will be available for the 2020-2021 school year.
Each Ethnomusicology in Action Curriculum includes detailed teacher’s guides, step by step lesson plans, sheet music, printed and online children’s books with narration, online videos, downloadable music recordings, accompaniment tracks for performances and scholarly background readings for educators.