What is J&D?

The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D) is a music integrated curriculum linking the arts (music, particularly jazz) and the humanities (U.S. history, government, civics and culture). In order to better understand what J&D is, it can be helpful to contrast it with what J&D is not:

J&D is..	J&D is not...
Part jazz appreciation.	Jazz band or instrumental music class—though it is suitable in these and other classes.
Part U.S. History, Government and Civics.	A history of jazz in America.
Based on the theory that the jazz process has much to tell us about the intention and execution of American democratic ideals.	Jazz theory, as in music theory (e.g., scales, chords, sight-reading, etc.)
Interactive lessons that routinely engage students in higher order thinking skills.	Play time.
Designed to bring musicians and non-musicians, "jazz heads" and those who know nothing of jazz, deeper inside the jazz process in unique and creative ways.	Designed solely for music students or musicians.
A music-integrated curriculum that utilizes the jazz process and aesthetic as a lens through which participants think critically about American democracy past and present.	A chronology of jazz music that you can play in class when studying various periods of U.S. history.
An apolitical and nuanced analysis of both jazz and democracy, exploring where the jazz-as-democracy metaphor fits, where it does not, and the complexities of both.	A naïve or partisan view of jazz or democracy that posits jazz or democracy as simple or necessarily ideal.