Jazz at Lincoln Center's "Swing U" Announces Fall Semester

By Evan Haga
More fun than getting your MBA, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Swing University” adult-education series begins this fall with classes led by drummer Lewis Nash, maverick poet/author Amiri Baraka, radio DJ Phil Schaap and more.
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, JALC will host a free open house for the jazz-curious from 6 – 7 p.m. The open house (and classes) will take place at the Irene Diamond Education Center at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall (Broadway at 60th, New York, NY). Courses run $125 – $250 and participants can enroll by calling (212) 258-9786 or online at jalc.org/swingu.
Here are descriptions of classes scheduled for this fall, cribbed from a JALC press release:

· MILES DAVIS with drummer Lewis Nash
Monday Nights: 9/14; 9/21; 10/5; 10/19
Friendly, thorough and musical, jazz drumming great Lewis Nash will provide a unique survey of Miles Davis and his music that will emphasize Miles’ rhythm sections (Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers and Red Garland; Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers and Wynton Kelly; Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock, among others) as well as Miles Davis' own concept of swing.

· BLUES & JAZZ with drummer Kenny Washington
Wednesday Nights: 9/23; 9/30; 10/7; 10/14; 10/21; 10/28; 11/4; 11/11
Jazz drumming giant Kenny Washington will make you feel good with some hard swinging, soulful music, but Juilliard educator Kenny Washington wants you to understand the song form that is blues and understand the use of the blues in jazz, too.

· DIGGING: A Listener’s Guide to Jazz – America’s Classical Music with author Amiri Baraka
Tuesday and Wednesday Nights: 12/ 1; 12/2; 12/8; 12/9
The jazz side of this grand man of letters has guided the ears of listeners from even before his landmark “Blues People” appeared in 1963. Baraka’s latest book, DIGGING: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music, published this spring by University of California Press, contains a blueprint to the music and the course’s point of view.

· JAZZ 101 with WKCR personality Phil Schaap
Tuesday Nights: 9/22; 9/29; 10/6; 10/13; 10/20; 10/27; 11/3; 11/10
Discover the A to Z of jazz. Learn about the Crescent City pioneers who taught musicians everywhere how to swing and the big-band-era heartthrobs who brought jazz into primetime. Relive the bebop revolution and follow its descendents—cool, hard bop, modal and free jazz—into the modern era.

· JAZZ 201 with WKCR personality Phil Schaap
Monday Nights: 10/26; 11/2; 11/9; 11/23; 11/30; 12/7; 12/14; 12/21
These in-depth sessions will open your ears to the music of known and lesser-known masters. How did King Oliver help invent the jazz solo? What was Bill Evans’ role in Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue? In Jazz 201 you’ll learn to hear the details.
http://jazztimes.com/sections/news/articles/24983-jazz-at-lincoln-center-s-swing-u-announces-fall-semester