Graduate Jazz Curriculum

Current advanced analytic techniques in the jazz idiom.

Jazz musicians have always learned to play by copying and imitating the solos of the greats, using them as models. That is, they developed fluency by answering the questions: “what is it like to have the vocabulary of Charlie Parker?” for example, and, “how does it feel to acquire his habits, his feel?” In this course, we work in concert with the tried-and-true method of imitation: learning the solos and unpacking their melodic and rhythmic vocabularies, thereby increasing our fluency and understanding of the mechanics. But exploring other conceptual questions might take us further: “what is a Parker solo or Elvin Jones accompaniment that Parker or Jones never played, but could have?” and “what possibilities are there for reassembling their melodies and rhythms, not as licks, but as modules?” While models serve the purpose of mechanical reproduction of the vocabulary, modules offer the potential for the infinite recombination thereof. In this course, we derive our modules from the solo improvisations of players such as Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, and John Coltrane, and from the comping routines of accompanists such as Bud Powell, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and many others.

 The course is about the creative interdependence of theory and practice—students study, analyze, and play the music of various historical styles of jazz. That means on the one hand learning to play solos and accompaniments and creatively applying harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic ideas mined from recordings; but on the other hand, it’s about imagining and thinking the potential applications of these ideas in students’ own compositions and improvisations in ways that moves beyond their original contexts. Theory is then about systematizing, scrambling, and recombining the elements—melody, rhythm, harmony, musical space, register, timbre, sound, language, time, feel, form—of the music itself as the basis of creating new practices.  

Coursework includes weekly assignments of listening, transcription and analysis; performance of solos and accompaniments, and creatively reapplying these ideas. The deep study of historical performances is supplemented by theory and analysis-based readings. There are two major transcription performance analysis projects, a midterm project and a final project.

Back to Top

Seminar in Music History: Jazz traces the historical development of jazz styles and improvisation from its beginnings to the 1960s through a study of the music of representative artists such as Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, among others. The course approaches the subject both academically and practically. Students read and discuss current literature and historical writings to learn about various research disciplines such as performance practice, historiography, philosophy, aesthetics, theory and analysis, criticism, ontology, and interpretation. This academic work provides research models for students to reference when designing and carrying out an individual research plan. But the models would be merely empty husks without deep, hands-on engagement with the music. Accordingly, students also listen to, transcribe, analyze, and play along with recordings of the past so that their research can be supported by discernible facts related to the music. This complementary methodology not only encourages the interdependence between history and practice, but also reinforces the aural and performance tradition of jazz, linking historical questions raised by scholars to the music itself and cultivating historically informed performance practices.

Coursework includes weekly readings, a case-study response presentation, transcription and performance analysis, and a midterm teaching interlude. A concurrent curriculum provides tools for executing an individual research project that culminates in a conference-style lecture recital.

More information on each individual combo and the coaches.

Back to Top

In this course, which serves as an introduction to graduate studies in music, students will engage in the community of composers, performers, scholars, and educators who have contributed to the global network of information concerning aesthetic, theoretical, philosophical, historical, cultural, and pedagogical aspects of music. After discussing principles of research, analysis, and critical thinking, students will examine proper channels to accessing authoritative information, evaluate the potential relevance of selected resources to an original research topic, and conduct an analysis that offers a unique interpretation of the subject. They will then review standards of writing style and format as they pertain to music scholarship, and contribute to the existing literature by communicating their discoveries with clarity and directness.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to use the printed and electronic information resources available at the University library, locate important bibliographic sources for research in music and music literature, construct a comprehensive bibliography on any musical topic, write program notes for works of any genre or style, and prepare a clearly organized prospectus for a thesis or dissertation.

Back to Top

Graduate students take four semesters of private studio lessons with professionals with extensive international experience. One of the unique aspects of our curriculum is that our studio lessons focus as much on the development of our students as instrumentalists as improvisers and accompanists. To that end, students frequently have the opportunity to split their lessons with artists on different instruments. For example, drummers might study with Gilbert Castellanos or Luca Alemanno and pianists and guitarists might work on accompaniment with vocalist Jane Monheit. Some students may have the opportunity to take a mini lesson with one of our guest artists. 

Studio Faculty (2025)

1. Brian Levy: jazz saxophone and improvisation 
2. Luca Alemanno: jazz  bass and improvisation
3. Gilbert Castellanos: jazz trumpet and improvisation 
4. Jane Monheit:  jazz voice and improvisation
5. Karl Soukup:   jazz composition lessons and improvisation 
6. Anthony Smith: jazz piano and improvisation
7. Steve Cotter: jazz guitar and improvisation
8. Tim McMahon: jazz drums and improvisation
9. Christopher Hollyday: jazz saxophone and improvisation
10. Derek Cannon: jazz trumpet and improvisation
11. Louis Valenzuela:  jazz guitar and improvisation 
12. Kevin Esposito: jazz trombone and improvisation

Back to Top

Selection of literature for recital program of at least one hour in length; theoretical analysis and historical study of scores chosen; preparation and public performance; and examination before a graduate committee of music department faculty. Conductors must conduct a public performance.

Back to Top

Jazz Combos and Ensembles 

All jazz majors take at least one combo or large ensemble each semester that they are at SDSU. The focus of our program is hands-on experience. As such, performing in both our small and large ensembles is the highlight of our jazz program. All groups perform a recital during Jazz Week of every semester. Most groups will also have the opportunity to perform with our guest-artist concerts. We are averaging 3-4 guest artist visits per semester since 2023.

More information on each individual combo and the coaches.

Jazz Styles: Improvisation A and Jazz Styles: Improvisation B (504 A & B)

Beginning in 2026, History of Jazz 364A and 364B will be renamed as Jazz Styles: Improvisation A and Jazz Styles Improvisation: B. The courses will switch from a 300-level course to a 500-level course that combines undergraduate students together. These courses are modeled by our director Dr.Levy’s favorite course of the 20 or so courses he taught at The New England Conservatory from 2012-2023.

Understanding jazz as a living tradition means creatively engaging in its history through a type of performance practice. In the same way that the practice of Baroque and Classical music, for example, demands that scholars and performers learn to realize figured bass and improvise preludes and cadenzas, the practice of jazz has its own set of historical performance practices. In this class, our study of jazz history blends deep engagement with the music itself, a hands-on approach complemented by contextual readings from the literature.   

In the spirit of how jazz giants often learned to improvise and play jazz, in Jazz Styles: Improvisation A, we listen to, compare and contrast, analyze, and play the solos and accompaniments of selected representative jazz artists including Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Papa Jo Jones, Billie Holiday, Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, and many others (in 364A) and Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and many others (in 364B). First and foremost, we transcribe, analyze, and perform the music itself, focusing on both the improvisations of the soloists and the interactions of the rhythm section. Through our hands-on approach (e.g., playing solos and mining them for ideas, vocabulary, and inspiration), we develop a rich understanding of the music while gaining experience playing in historical styles. Furthermore, appropriating the techniques and vocabularies from classic solos into our new improvisations helps us to realize a more personal end: becoming a stronger soloist. The semester culminates with individual projects and presentations on a modern or current performance/solo of your choice.

Jazz Arranging & Composition: MUSIC 566 A & B 

Students taking jazz arranging and composition courses at SDSU focus on developing a broad set of skills they can apply in their career as students and beyond into their creative professional endeavors.  They write lead sheets, learn voicing techniques, apply scoring and engraving methods, analyze classic jazz works, and create original compositions and arrangements that they record and/or perform as part of the class.  Projects across both semesters include: 3-horn combo chart, sax soli, brass shout, nonet arrangement, and original big band composition.   

Back to Top