– First choose two recordings (of the same song) from Two New Orleans Songs listening list. All of the New Orleans songs given here have similarities: sharing the standard components of jazz (syncopation, layered rhythms, and improvised elements) and even some elements of the blues. But they also contrast with one anotherwhat can you say about how the songs differ? In your discussion of their differences, try to put particular focus on at least one of the following issues:
      1. Arrangementhow do the instruments interact? Can you hear them as separate layers, with different kinds of activity going along simultaneously? How does the interaction change from one part of the song to another? you dont have to be certain of which instrument is which, and it’s ok to describe something as, for example, “sounds like a trumpet”you won’t be graded based on the accuracy of how you label sounds. Simply describe what you hear as well as you can.
      2. Improvisationhow do solo musicians vary their approach, or their expression, in different sections of the recording? Indicate when you think a musician breaks from the melody to improvise, and try to describe how the improvisation feels, and what it expresses to you.

– Second, draw on the outline of cultural and historical circumstances affecting these styles in Carney’s (2006) New Orleans and the Creation of Early JazzPreview the document”, and concepts in either the Barker and Taylor chapter or Tucker’s (1990) “Renaissance Education of Duke EllingtonPreview the document” (which is optional in this unit), to consider the way these songs influenced later jazz traditions. In your discussion, make brief reference to at least one song from the “Development of Early Jazz”, “Swing” or “Swinging Tin-Pan Alley” listening lists. Do you hear connections or distinctions between an authentic jazz tradition beginning in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, and the developed concept of jazz as it is gradually popularized throughout the world: influencing musicians in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Chicago, or New York? What elements of these “New Orleans” songs would become important in the music of later musicians with larger, more international audiences?