Swing U

Over six weeks, Swing University’s curator Seton Hawkins will explore the multi-decade career of one of music's most remarkable innovators: Miles Davis. A titan of Jazz whose career spanned multiple styles of music, a fearless performer who perpetually reinvented his style and sound, and an icon of cool in popular culture, Miles Davis has fascinating, inspired, and occasionally baffled the world of Jazz since first bursting onto the scene in the 1940s. We will delve into the many aspects of this icon and celebrate his genius.

Join us as we spend five weeks delving into the extraordinary life, brilliant music, and stardom of America's "First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald. Exploring her early life and rise to fame with the Chick Webb Orchestra; to her rise to pop stardom; to her iconic Songbook series, collaborations with Louis Armstrong, and beyond, we'll celebrate the life and music of one of Jazz's greatest legends in a course led by vocalist and educator Gillian Margot.

Dive into the music of one of Jazz’s unsung heroes: the genius pianist and composer Herbie Nichols. Saxophonist Ted Nash will guide you through Nichols’ 1950s records, and explore his remarkable legacy as more and more of his music has entered the public sphere decades after his passing!

One of America’s most iconic and beloved entertainers, Bing Crosby holds a far more influential position within Jazz’s development than he is given credit for. Perhaps the most successful entertainer America ever produced, Bing Crosby was also a highly impactful artist who would wield a massive influence on figures like Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, and who shaped the trajectory of American popular song in ways felt to this very day.

Join Swing University curator Seton Hawkins in a four-week dive into one of Jazz’s most extraordinary composers and musical thinkers: Billy Strayhorn. We’ll examine his legendary collaboration with Duke Ellington, dive into his own solo recordings, and explore his small combo and vocal collaborations.

Award-winning jazz biographer Stephanie Stein Crease guides you through a five-week exploration of the life and career of Gil Evans (1912-1988), whose innovative work as an arranger, composer and band leader helped transform the sound of modern jazz. His collaborations with Miles Davis resulted in three best-selling jazz albums of all time. An array of jazz stars including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and David Sanborn performed on Evans’s own brilliant recordings.

Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) was a hugely important figure in avant-garde jazz from the 1950s until his death. A pioneer of what came to be known as “free jazz,” his early work synthesized influences from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and classical music into a florid, romantic, and at times overpowering style that shocked as many listeners as it enraptured. Author Philip Freeman will take students through Taylor’s work in four connected lectures.

Join saxophonist, composer, bandleader, author, and educator Allen Lowe as he guides you through an extraordinary array and range of black music in America, including some of the earliest recordings we have. Through it, he will explore the questions of some of Jazz’s origins, examining the importance of Ragtime, jug band music, medicine show music, minstrelsy, and more to the development of Jazz, and tackle the complexities of race and music in America. In exploring the complex, fascinating, and wildly varied music of the 1800s, we can better understand Jazz’s origins in American popular music.

Frank Sinatra was one of the most ground-breaking, beloved, and enduring singers in the history of the world. Walking comfortably between the worlds of Jazz and Pop, Sinatra revolutionized so much of how we think about popular singing, and along the way created some of the greatest vocal works of all time.

Louis Armstrong first met Panamanian-born pianist Luis Russell in New Orleans in the early 1920s. The two became fast friends, who soon found themselves on similar career paths. Armstrong began recording Russell compositions as early as 1926 and joined him for a series of recordings and live performances beginning in 1929. After years of making numerous seminal Decca recordings, Russell was replaced as Music Director, but remained Armstrong’s pianist until 1943, eventually leaving to start his own band. Though their musical partnership was over, Armstrong and Russell remained close friends, with Russell visiting Armstrong’s home in Corona, Queens and even writing songs for the trumpeter until the end of his life. This course will examine all stages of Armstrong and Russell’s friendship and musical partnership.

In 1956, CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow set up a visit for Louis Armstrong to visit the Gold Coast of Africa, soon to become the independent nation of Ghana. Murrow sent a camera crew and photographers to document Armstrong’s every move, which became the centerpiece of the documentary film Satchmo the Great. Armstrong was treated as a hero during this short stay and was invited by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana’s Independence Day celebration in 1957. By 1960, the United States State Department sent Armstrong as a “Jazz Ambassador” on a massive tour of nearly the entire continent that lasted several months. Rare recordings, video footage, and photographs survive from these historic trips and will be shared by the Louis Armstrong House Museum’s Director of Research Collections, Ricky Riccardi.