As someone who is very into jazz and writing, I really enjoyed this class! The lectures covered jazz history from early jazz to bebop to cool jazz to jazz fusion to modern jazz and more, and we learned the characteristics of each subgenre. The professor studies Mardi Gras Indian culture and music, so we spent a good chunk of the class covering this as well, especially since Mardi Gras occurs in Winter quarter. The final project is choose-your-own topic, and if you do a creative project you only need to write 1-3 pages (I did a creative project and ended up with 7 pages written simply out of genuine interest in my topic lol). The midterm and final are both very easy as long as you are able to identify and describe the 8-12 jazz songs that he has on a list. In general, I felt I learned a lot about jazz history and was given ample opportunity to nerd out about whatever jazz related topic I wanted through the final project and the written concert observation. The professor is really cool and funny, and he cares a lot about jazz. I honestly wish I could've taken his other jazz course, M50A, for GE credits as well!

class was incredible and easy and very interesting, the professor was super engaging and TAs all genuinely cared about educating students, and course material was very interesting and well organized

Worst GE ever. I love jazz and absolutely hated this class. It was so incredibly unorganized and I had no idea what was expected of me the entire time. The classes were each two hours long and he would ramble about who knows what. It was so unclear what you were supposed to be learning. The midterms and finals were torture. I studied for days and ended up doing well because I spent so much time on them, but it was way too much work for a GE. The questions were super random and rarely were actually covered in class/ the readings. Also, we were expected to remember long lists of songs (he would play the song and we had to recognize it and memorize their titles, artists, genres, years, and random details. We had to write multiple essays (literally the longest essays I've had to write in my life even though there was nothing to talk about), a long project, and try to find a boring concert to attend just to write another incredibly long essay. If you put an insane amount of work in, you'll do fine, but it's not worth it. As a pre-med student, saying this is the most time I've ever put into a class is insane.

NO HOMEWORK, only a required concert observation and project both due towards the end of the class. One midterm with an in-person multiple choice and an at-home written portion, same with the final. Mandatory discussions that are pretty engaging. Marc is a super nice guy, you can tell he's really passionate about what he teaches and wish I went to more than 3-4 lectures. You definitely don't need prior musical knowledge because this is more of a history class than a music theory class.

For the midterm/final: You will have required listening playlist on Spotify/YouTube, literally just memorize the songs and the artists that composed/performed them and have an understanding on the history behind it. Probably ended up studying 4-6 hours in total for each test and got 100 on the midterm and 94 on the final.

Overall a super easy and interesting class

the lectures are 2 hours and unrecorded. i stopped going and started relying on the slides to figure out what was going on, but the slides are not super detailed. the tests are easy, and the projects are fine as well. it's just a lot of hassle for a class i opted to take as a GE! the subject is of course interesting, but i wasn't as invested/interested in the class as i thought i would be.

He is a really nice professor and did try really well to explain Jazz terms to non music majors. However the class would benefit from more structured lecture slides.