Traditional Jazz

In the “Audio” Section of the resources for the teaching strategy, you will notice numbered musical examples. These are designed to take your students on a journey from the more formal dances popular in the later 1800s and early 1900s in New Orleans, to the emergence of early Jazz in the city.

1. Ask students to listen to the first example, and imagine how they would move to this music if they were at a dance. How would the dancers hold their shoulders? Their arms? How would they move their feet? How close would they dance to their partner?
2. As students become more comfortable, ask them to stand up and try to move their upper body in a way that matches the music. When they are ready, ask them to try to move through the space in a way that matches the music.
3. As you prepare a shared graphic organizer for the class, tell students that together you are going to compare and contrast the music of several different dances. Ask students to help you determine a visual representation of the first example, and some descriptive words to explain the dance they are imagining.
4. Over the course of a few class periods, build more descriptions for each dance. Have students make observations about how the music is the same or different, and to consider what is changing in the music.

In the “Audio” Section of the resources for the teaching strategy, you will notice numbered musical examples. These are designed to take your students on a journey from the more formal dances popular in the later 1800s and early 1900s in New Orleans, to the emergence of early Jazz in the city.

1. Ask students to listen to the first example, and imagine how they would move to this music if they were at a dance. How would the dancers hold their shoulders? Their arms? How would they move their feet? How close would they dance to their partner?
2. As students become more comfortable, ask them to stand up and try to move their upper body in a way that matches the music. When they are ready, ask them to try to move through the space in a way that matches the music.
3. As you prepare a shared graphic organizer for the class, tell students that together you are going to compare and contrast the music of several different dances. Ask students to help you determine a visual representation of the first example, and some descriptive words to explain the dance they are imagining.
4. Over the course of a few class periods, build more descriptions for each dance. Have students make observations about how the music is the same or different, and to consider what is changing in the music.

1. Introduce the article provided in the resources section of this teaching strategy: Evolution of a Cultural Tradition (Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Winter 1991).
2. Ask students to read pages 19-21 (beginning with Music in Constant Demand), and to consider the social and political environment in New Orleans during the Reconstruction era. Facilitate a discussion around the emergence of jazz after that time period.
3. Utilize the photos in this teaching strategy to prompt a discussion around the dance scene in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. Where did musicians play, and who attended?
4. Ask students to select one element of the article to research further. Aligned with your curricula, develop protocols for research.
5. Ask students to prepare a multi-media presentation that incorporate images, audio examples, and video to present the environment of New Orleans during the emergence of jazz.

1. Over the course of a week, listen to the (5) short oral history clips provided for Jeanette Kimball. Note: Oral History Clips to Come
2. For each clip, ask students to identify the event from Kimball’s life, and provide an illustration with text on the storyboard provided. After each initial draft, ask them if they need to add any additional details and allow time for revision as necessary.
3. At the end of the week, ask students to cut their storyboard into squares and re-order to show the correct sequence of Jeanette Kimball’s life.

Extension: In small groups, allow students to create a tableau for each element of the storyboard, and combine these into a “silent film.” Students should think of a way to transition from one tableau to the next, and should choose a soundtrack for their film from the earliest available recordings of the Tuxedo Jazz Band.

1. Ask students to review the photographs included in this teaching strategy, and have a discussion about what life may have been like for musicians in the times that these photographs were taken.
2. Ask students to listen to the oral history clip (in the “audio” section of the resources) and to read the transcription provided. In small groups, students will trace the tour that Peter Bocage describes.
3. Each small group should create a visual presentation in map form, including the course of the tour and each city where the musicians stopped to play.
4. While reviewing each group’s presentation, facilitate a discussion about what happens when musicians bring their music to other cities and towns. How might jazz have changed as it traveled upriver? What does jazz in Minnesota sound like today? What about jazz in New Orleans?
5. Extension activity: Assign segments from the article provided (King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz), to reinforce skills in navigating informational text, citing evidence, drawing conclusions, etc.

1. Ask students to read the article provided in the links section of this Teaching Strategy:Walking through Stardust: The final interview with Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton
2. Facilitate a discussion about how jazz has been passed down to each generation.
3. Ask students to trace the “musical genealogy” of Nicholas Payton, extending back before Doc Cheatham, to the musicians and bands who influenced Louis Armstrong. Students should also research those musicians who have been influenced by Payton.
4. Utilize the audio and video links found in this and other teaching strategies to compare the musics of each generation. What do students notice about the evolution of the traditional jazz style, over time?
5. Ask students to create a visual representation of Nicholas Payton’s musical family tree, adding in as many other musicians as they can find with whom he has connections.

In the early or traditional style of Jazz in New Orleans, there is the front line (cornet or trumpet, clarinet, trombone) and the rhythm section (piano, guitar or banjo, bass/tuba, and drums).

1. Using the worksheets provided, help students differentiate instruments by their appearance, and the sound they might make. What does a musician need to do to play each one?
2. Introduce the terms “front line” and “rhythm section,” (What’s rhythm? What’s “front line?”), and ask students to consider which instruments might fit into which role.
3. Begin with some focused, careful noticing of the two photographs provided in the toolbox. What instruments do the students see? How are they arranged on stage? Which seem to be the front line?
4. Next, move to the video of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, and ask students if their opinion is changing at all.
5. Provide students with an image of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, ask them to listen to some of the musical examples provided on the Preservation Hall Website. They should “track” which instrument they think they are hearing, much like we would track the speaker in class, and they can write notes about what they are hearing.