For the Jazz Legend Project, you will research a jazz legend and write an article in the style of the article on Jelly Roll Morton written by my friend and colleague, Dr. Sherri Canon. You will find this article as a page at the end of Module 2. Like Dr. Canon’s, your article should include biographical information, the musician’s unique contributions to jazz, the culture or era in which they lived and worked, close analysis of two of their songs, along with mp3’s or videos of the songs, and images. You will submit your article on the Jazz Legend Project Assignment link on Canvas.

Be sure to write your article on a separate document and then upload it when you’re ready to submit (Canvas times out sometimes and I wouldn’t want you to lose any of your work). Also, be sure to proofread your paper and make corrections before submitting! All written work must be your own. Any evidence of plagiarism will lead to a failing grade on the assignment. Your article should be at least 1,000 words (4 pages, double-spaced) and include mp3’s or links to YouTube videos, and images.

See the Jazz Legend Choices on the next page to choose your jazz legend. If you want to write about someone who’s not on the list, let me know and I’ll tell you if you can proceed with your choice. Choices will be granted on a first-come-first-serve basis and only one legend per student.  I’m giving this to you now so you can work on it throughout the semester, as you learn more about the different genres and musical influences. 

Your article should include: 

1. Biographical information

2. The musician’s unique contributions to jazz

3. The culture or era in which they lived and worked

4. Close analysis of two of their songs

5. Your personal reactions to the artist and their music

6. mp3’s, videos, images

Use two or more primary sources in your research. Make sure everything you write is in your own words. Don’t copy or paste something from an internet source. If you do, it will be considered plagiarism and we don’t want that! (You also will not get credit for your article if you plagiarize.) If you want to quote a sentence from a book or article, it’s okay, just use quotation marks around the quote and include a citation in the body of the text, like so:  (Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12). Mostly, you should gather information from your sources and then write it in your own wonderful words. 

You should include a bibliography at the end of your article. Use Chicago Manual of Style for writing about music. See examples below for formatting your bibliography (Works Cited).

for a book: Author. Title of book in italics. City of Publisher: Publisher, year.

for an article in a journal: Author. “Title of article in quotes,” Journal in italics. Volume, no. (Date):page numbers.