Instructor: Michael Borshuk

Faculty of Extension, Program for Older Adults

University of Alberta
Education Bldg, Room 327

http://www.ualberta.ca/~mborshuk/sf.htm


Commenting on the playing of fellow saxophonists Lester Young and Charlie Parker, jazz legend Dexter
Gordon once remarked that the pair were always "telling a story" in their improvisations. "That kind of
musical philosophy is what I try to do," Gordon continued, "because telling a story is, I think, where it's
at." Perhaps in part because of this narrative quality that Gordon observes, jazz has charmed the muse
of countless twentieth century writers from the 1920s onward. Over the past seven decades the music
has inspired a diverse range of authors that includes Langston Hughes, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin,
Jack Kerouac, and Michael Ondaatje. This eight-week course will observe the influence of jazz on short
fiction by several different twentieth-century writers. Among the topics we will consider through our
reading and discussion are

* what is it about the jazz musician's life that proves so consistently alluring for writers?
* how does jazz--a style that originates out of an African American musical tradition--influence black and
non-black writers in similar and/or different ways?
* how do writers try to reproduce the sound and feel of jazz through literary style, and are these efforts
inevitably doomed to be, as the popular saying goes, as confusing as "dancing about architecture"?

To facilitate discussion of this last question, our reading list will be supplemented throughout with in-
class listening of representative works by noted jazz musicians and composers. As well, the instructor
will frequently bring in clips from jazz films and selected excerpts from jazz books and magazines to
augment class discussions.------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 1: What is Jazz? An Introduction
An open discussion about what jazz is and how the music came to be. The instructor will bring in
selected readings from jazz histories and biographies, as well as various recordings of different jazz
styles, to help us arrive at answers to those difficult questions.

Week 2: The Prehistory of Jazz
Stories about the folk blues, ragtime and other styles that led to the development of jazz.
Reading: "The Luzana Cholly Kick" (1953) by Albert Murray; Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (an
excerpt) (1912) by James Weldon Johnson

Listening: Selected recordings by Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Scott Joplin and others.

Week 3: Early Jazz and Classic Blues
Stories about jazz and urban blues of the 1920s and -30s.
Reading: "The Blues I'm Playing" (1934) by Langston Hughes; "Powerhouse" (1941) by Eudora Welty

Listening: Selected recordings by Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, and Fats Waller.

Week 4: Swing, Swing, Swing!
Stories about the swing craze of the 1930s and -40s.
Reading: "Solo on the Drums" (1947) by Ann Petry; "Eine Kleine Jazzmusik" (1977) by Josef Skvorecky

Listening: Selected recordings by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and other popular big
bands.

Week 5: The Bebop Revolution
Stories about the "modern" revolution in jazz led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s and -
50s.
Reading: "Sonny's Blues" (1957) by James Baldwin; "Jazz of the Beat Generation" (1955) by Jack Kerouac

Listening: Selected recordings by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.

Week 6: Free Jazz and "Out" Experimentation
Stories based on the experimental jazz of the 1960s and beyond.
Reading: "Now and Then" and "The Screamers" by Amiri Baraka (1967)

Listening: Selected recordings by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and David
Murray.

Week 7: Looking Back on Tradition
Contemporary stories about past moments in the jazz tradition.
Reading: Coming Through Slaughter (1976) (an excerpt) by Michael Ondaatje; But Beautiful (1996) (an
excerpt) by Geoff Dyer

Listening: Selected recordings by new traditionalists like Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, and Nicholas
Payton.

Week 8: Dark Shades and Black Berets
Comic pieces about the music; looking at caricatures of jazz and the jazz musician.
Reading: "You're Too Hip, Baby" (1963) by Terry Southern; "Crazy Red Riding Hood" by Steve Allen
(1955); "What, Another Legend?" (1973) by Marshall Brickman

Listening: Selected recordings that reveal the 'humour' of jazz music.
------------------------------------------------------------------------



Another text to investigate, this one by Ellison: Ellison, "A Party Down at the Square" (2201)



Eudora Welty's "Powerhouse"

Here's the full text of Welty's "Powerhouse": http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/welt_pwr.html

Listen to Eudora Welty reading "Powerhouse" at
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/specials/welty.html

(The story begins with racial language/descriptions of questionable usability.)

Lots of Welty links on this site, too.

See a short 1995 NYT article on EW, with a quotation from "Powerhouse":
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/specials/welty-home.html

An intro to "Powerhouse": http://www.people.virginia.edu/~agm5h/powerhouse.html





UPenn Course: The Literatures of Jazz

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~hbeavers/Courses/syllabus.html



Here's the WebQuest site that it comes from: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/9-12matrix.html



http://online.middlesex.cc.ma.us/en1105/summer/suweek4.htm#plot

Here's an online English course that mentions SB and which offers definitions of terms.
Here's the URL for the entire course. Note that the "Course Schedule" includes a page for every day of
class. Maybe we should consider this.
http://online.middlesex.cc.ma.us/en1105/



Mr. H. writes, "Having thrown that hippie gauntlet down, are you ready for a challenge? I nominate
Eudora Welty's 'Powerhouse' as the greatest jazz story of all time. Check it out. Top it, if you can."

Well. As the ancient Romans said, "De gustibus non est disputandum," which, literally means
"Concerning taste there can be no argument," but which could be construed as "Blow it out your nose,"
or some other orifice, if the ancients had had such a phrase. And, no doubt, they did. But I've known Mr.
H. for nearly 40 years. He's never steered me wrong.

And I didn't know the Welty story. So I headed for the local library, found it, read it, and was transfixed
by its elegance and the theme of redemption that runs through it. The protagonist is a jazz keyboard
man on tour who gets a cryptic telegram about his wife's death. And it is never clear whether or not she
actually is dead. But Mr. H, is correct -- it is a story that deserves a Top 5 rating in the genre of jazz prose
works.

My own nomination for a Top 5 spot goes to James Baldwin for "Sonny's Blues," a story that also carries
redemption via music as its theme.
What we have here, I mused, is an explanation of why jazz touches some deep pedal tone in our souls
and brings us hope and pleasure at the same time.
I am always harping about the blues, and about how the best of jazz is blues-based, because the soul
and spirit of the blues is about suffering and redemption. And redemption may take on the likeness of
resignation to a lousy life, but that resignation is a redemption unto itself. Similarly, the spark of hope
resides therein. And, when one adds the glory of melody and harmony, who could ask for more?

"Powerhouse" and "Sonny's Blues" show us the power of music to heal the spirit. And they reveal music
-- specifically, jazz -- as a substitute for going to church.
http://www.skyjazz.com/commentaries/redemption.htm





"Tips for Writing a Literary Analysis"

http://lrc.sierra.cc.ca.us/writingcenter/litanalysis.htm