FYS 050 Miles Davis: Popular Music and Race in America

Equal parts race, popular music, and Miles Davis, this seminar invites students to explore issues of race central to the history of black Americans and the United States, alongside the origins and development of American popular music from 1900 through the 1970s. Prepared with historical and musical context, students finally will deal with trumpeter/bandleader/composer Miles Davis, less as an icon than as an exemplar of a black musician making choices and taking chances.