Get Your *Free* Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit!

Under the auspices of the Jazz Education Network (JEN), TJEN has produced the first-ever curriculum package for the teaching of traditional jazz styles to high school and college students. This project fulfills Goal #11 in the TJEN Action Plan.  Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Park Foundation, a private donor, the Raynier Institute and Foundation, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society Foundation, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the American Federation of Jazz Societies, the National Park Service, and the Statesmen of Jazz.

The Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit, currently undergoing national distribution to high schools and colleges, enables music teachers to teach young people how to perform traditional jazz (i.e., New Orleans styles and their outgrowths). The Kit contains lesson plans; music arrangements, transcriptions and lead sheets; audio tracks; instructional videos; a resources guide; a jazz style guide; and a poster.

While scholastic jazz education programs are widespread, there has not been a formalized curriculum for the teaching of New Orleans-derived styles. The Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit is acquainting students nationwide with the music of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Bunk Johnson, George Lewis, Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, Eddie Condon, and later exponents of traditional styles, including the top traditional jazz artists of today. The goal of the project is the national revitalization of traditional jazz styles through the increased participation of young people.

The curriculum package has been designed to augment existing scholastic music programs, and supports the National Standards for Music Education as well as select Common Core Standards.  The Kit has been successfully applied in classrooms across the country at the middle school, high school and college levels.

Click the logo below to go to the JEN web page about the Kit, which includes the mechanism to request your free copy!