Reddit mentions of The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire

interesting. I recently put together an huge list of Jazz books oriented towards non-musicians. After putting together the list I organized it into courses like a university might. I called it my "Masters Degree in Jazz Studies for Non-Musicians." The first two courses I think would be perfect for you.

<br /> <br /> **Course 1: Jazz Appreciation**<br /> This course is meant to give you a solid grounding in how to listen to jazz music without delving too deeply in music theory or requiring the student to be a musician. It is also meant to expose you to the core body of work of jazz. <br /> <br /> [Enjoying Jazz - Henry Martin](http://www.amazon.com/Enjoying-Schirmer-Books-Henry-Martin/dp/0028731301/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)<br /> <br /> [How To Listen To Jazz - Jerry Coker](http://www.amazon.com/How-Listen-Jazz-Jerry-Coker/dp/1562240005/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1420760894&amp;amp;sr=1-9)<br /> <br /> [Jazz Standards - Ted Gioia](http://www.amazon.com/The-Jazz-Standards-Guide-Repertoire/dp/0199937397/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;refRID=0DX94W5SY4BM04GD6W5J)<br /> <br /> <br />

Course 2: Jazz History 101
This is a basic course in jazz history. it is not meant to be an in depth coverage of every style. It is meant to give the student a broad overview of the general progression of jazz from it's inception into the modern era. Other courses in the program go much further in depth into specific styles and the major players of those styles.

Ken Burns Jazz

Jazz 101 - John F Szwed

History of Jazz - Ted Gioia

Visions of Jazz - Gary Giddins

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so far the program I developed has 10 courses. If anyone is interested I could share the content of the other courses. and I am considering developing a syllabus for each course and possibly even more courses, but the time and effort needed to complete the 10 courses would already be more than the effort I put in to obtaining an actual master's degree from a university so I'm not sure how much more effort I would want to put into this right now.

These books are (left to right):

Notes And Tones: Musician to Musician Interviews (Arthur Taylor): http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Tones-Musician---Musician-Interviews/dp/030680526X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419879383&sr=8-1&keywords=notes+and+tones

The Jazz Standards: A Guide To The Repertoire (Ted Gioia): http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Standards-Guide-Repertoire/dp/0199937397/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419879452&sr=8-1&keywords=the+jazz+standards

DownBeat - The Great Jazz Interviews (a 75th Anniversary Anthology) (Frank Alkyer): http://www.amazon.com/DownBeat-Great-Interviews-Anniversary-Anthology/dp/1423463846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419879539&sr=8-1&keywords=the+great+jazz+interviews

The History Of Jazz (Ted Gioia): http://www.amazon.com/History-Jazz-Ted-Gioia/dp/0195399706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419879629&sr=8-1&keywords=the+history+of+jazz+ted+gioia

try this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Standards-Guide-Repertoire/dp/0199937397