This first session on jazz will look at the roots of jazz in the last half of the 1800s and then explore several types of jazz up to about 1920. Topics include the influence of African American folk music and spirituals, "blues notes" in the traditional blues scale, 12-bar blues form, folk blues, "city" blues, ragtime, Scott Joplin,  "New Orleans style" brass band funeral jazz, and the role of improvisation. We will hear what Louis Armstrong said about early jazz, and Leonard Bernstein's comments as well.