Alright so the class is very easy. The class starts great and super interesting but after lecture 3 it basically becomes a two hour-long slideshow introducing jazz artist after jazz artist. It gets extremely boring at times but the class is interesting if you want to have more than a surface level understanding of jazz music. In regards to grading 10% of it is based on participation in your TA section, this can be hit or miss depending on how strict your TA is. Mine seemed like she didn’t want to be a TA for the class was kinda rude tbh lol. But every TA is. The rest of your grade depends on two concert observations, which are very easy so do them early! And the midterm and final as well as a final project. For the tests Professor Bolin will make sure that you know everything that will be on them. We usually had a review day before the exam and basically everything that was on the notes that day would be on the test. For the final project you have complete liberty to do what you want, so you don’t have to do a research paper and can do things like album reviews or even write a song. Overall this is a great and easy class, just boring af.

Let me start with-- this class was easy. Its been said, that's why I took it. Marc is very passionate about jazz and it is clear through his lectures, however, this class is BORING AF. Two hour lectures at 9 am are not it for me, but if that is for you, have at it! There was one midterm that was online and I got 100%. There was a final that was also online, but it was harder-- probably because I studied 0 hours. The final paper was a drag and 6-9 PAGES LONG, but he only looked at the formatting and I got 100%. There were also some TA assignments, but going to the discussions were pointless in my opinion. The listening list is given for midterm and final, but there was NO NEED to listen to them because our midterm and final were online (if in person, I would recommend listening). Just know you will be bored and will not want to go to the lectures (that he doesn't even record), but if you need an easy GE, take this class!

I like the content of this class, and I enjoy listening to the beautiful jazz music played before and during lectures. I just don't like that an 80-dollar exclusive online textbook access is mandatory (weekly assignments are on the textbook website; you can't share it with others or try to get it from anywhere else) Also, Dr. Gabo is a nice person. He highly respects people of different backgrounds, colors, cultures, and opinions, and is open to conversations with students. Women rights and LGBTQ+ contributions to jazz music development are crucial parts of this course. The lecture is highly interactive, and Dr. Gabo may randomly call on people to share their thoughts about a piece a music demonstrated or check a point previous discussed in class. However, his way of giving speech is not engaging enough for me to stay focused for two hours. He talks like he is in his dream; he does not enunciate clearly enough; he thinks and breaks a lot between words and goes on tangent a lot. Workload for this course is manageable but a little high for me. No final exams, but weekly textbook questions, 10 listening journals and short answer packets for midterm and finals, concert observation, and a final project. If you like writing about your listening experience, it should be fine, but sometimes I just feel like I am running out of words for these listening journals and they become a burden.

This class is very easy as a GE, but I found a lot of the assignments to be kind of tedious. You are given much creative freedom on the final project, but most will likely pursue a research paper style thing. Professor Bolin is a really cool guy, but the two hour lectures can tend to drag on. If you're interested in jazz or music at all, I would recommend this class as an easy GE. However, if you have substantial knowledge of jazz music, you'd be better off spending your time elsewhere. That being said, much of the history taught is quite interesting.