Dan Morgenstern and Teaching the Early History of Jazz

  • Brian Priestley Retired
Keywords: jazz history, jazz pedagogy

Abstract

While Dan Morgenstern is best known as the director of the Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University), he is equally important as one of the few writers on jazz to have retained a comprehensive overview of jazz history. Several generations of jazz teachers have only been interested in jazz from bebop onwards and as a consequence few teachers or students of jazz have a real grasp on the scope and sounds of early jazz. The challenge is to make the study of jazz history meaningful and to provide our students with a sufficiently wide contextual base to understand the full history of jazz.

Author Biography

Brian Priestley, Retired
Brian Priestly is a leading jazz educator, writer, and pianist. Among his publications are biographies of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Charlie Parker. His reference work, Jazz: The Rough Guide (with Ian Carr and Digby Fairweather) is in its third edition. He has contributed regularly to Melody Maker, Downbeat, and Jazz Journal International.
Published
2012-10-07
Section
Roundtable