1. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ
Script by John Jacobson
(Section 1 SMITH)
SPEAKER 1: What’s that sound? Do you hear it? (Jayda)
SPEAKER 2: Yes! I hear it! It sounds like something brand new. (Darren)
SPEAKER 3: It sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. (Aiden)
SPEAKER 4: (a bit sarcastically) It sounds to me like they’re just makin’ it up as they go along! (Colin)
SPEAKER 5: Well, maybe they are. It sounds “old” but “fresh.” (Emily)
SPEAKER 6: “Honest” and “real.” (Anna)

2. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 2
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 7: “African” and “American” (Braxton)
SPEAKER 8: (still sarcastically) I think they’re just makin’ it up! (Jayda)
SPEAKER 9: Well, if it sounds “old,” but “fresh,” “honest” and “real,” “African” and “American” (Darren)
SPEAKER 10: “. . .and like they’re just makin’ it up!” (Colin)
SPEAKER 11: It has to be (Aiden)
SPEAKER 12: It ought to be (Braxton)
SPEAKER 13: It’s gotta be (Anna)
ALL: Jazz!

3. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 3
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #1: Gotta Be Jazz (Section 2 JOHNSON)
SPEAKER 1: Most people agree that jazz music gets its roots from the songs the slaves used to sing as they were working in the fields. (Nicholas)
SPEAKER 2: Of course the music had a lot of African influence in it since most of the slaves were from Africa. (Eleanor)
SPEAKER 3: It also incorporated sounds of the Caribbean Islands. (Sueli)
SPEAKER 4: Did you know that New Orleans was the first place that slaves were allowed to make their music in public? (Carla)
SPEAKER 5: No wonder people think of that great city as the birthplace of jazz. (Parker)
SPEAKER 6: The whole world woke up to jazz around 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band released it first record. (Lacy)

4. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 4
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 7: F. Scott Fitzgerald called the 1920s, “The Jazz Age.” (Rylee)
SPEAKER 8: People started singing the blues! (Jeremiah)
SPEAKER 9: But wait a minute! Wait a minute! I’m confused! Is it blues? Or is it Jazz? (Parker)
SPEAKER 10: Or are they just makin’ it up? (Nicholas)
SPEAKER 11: Blues, Ragtime, Dixieland – if it’s any of these, it’s gotta be jazz! (Jeremiah)

5. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 5
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #2: Basin Street Blues (Section 3 CAMPBELL)
SPEAKER 1: From New Orleans, jazz quickly spread up the Mississippi River to Saint Louis and even Chicago. (Jaila)
SPEAKER 2: The great thing about jazz is that it just continues to grow and change. (Coral)
SPEAKER 3: Today people can take almost any song they know and add jazz elements to it to make it sound like a jazz song. (Brook)
SPEAKER 4: Really? Any song? (Marissa)
SPEAKER 5: Sure! What’s your favorite? (Juan)
SPEAKER 6: (very sweetly so the other students look at her a bit strangely) Well, whenever I’m feeling just a little bit down, there’s a song I like to sing about my favorite things. It almost always makes me feel a whole lot better. (Tyler)

6. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 6
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 7: (sarcastically to the audience) Is he for real? (Jasmine)
SPEAKER 8: Well, let’s give it a jazz waltz feel and maybe your favorite song can become part of the story of jazz. (Sophia)
SPEAKER 9: Do you really think so? (Tyler)
SPEAKER 10: It’s worth a try. If it’s about taking musical risks. . .you know. . .
(Joseph)
SPEAKER 11: (excitedly) It’s gotta be jazz! (Coral)

7. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 7
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #3: My Favorite Things (Section 4 HEAD)
SPEAKER 1: From Chicago, jazz music made its way east to Detroit, Philadelphia and New York City! (Cali)
SPEAKER 2: Eventually it even headed west “travel my way, take the highway, that’s the best!” (Ava)
SPEAKER 3: Hey, that sounds like a song! (Ryann)
SPEAKER 4: It is a song! And it ended up being a jazz standard about the highway that everybody used to travel as they headed west to seek their fortunes at the end of the road. (Eden)
SPEAKER 5: You mean someone wrote a song about a road? (Breslyn)
SPEAKER 6: Sure, in jazz music you can write a song that is just about anything. (Elonnie)

8. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 8
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 7: Like the “A Train!” (Bella)
SPEAKER 8: A Caravan! (Jordan)
SPEAKER 9: A Sentimental Mood! (Ella)
SPEAKER 10: The “A” Train? A Caravan? A Sentimental Mood? Well then, I guess you might as well write a song about a highway. (Faith)
SPEAKER 11: Not just any highway! If it’s gonna be jazz, it’s gotta be Route 66!
(Alex)

9. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 9
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #4: Route 66 (Section 5 SMITH)
SPEAKER 1: I like music that you can dance to. (Jayda)
SPEAKER 2: (enthusiastically, each questioner offering their arms for a dance)
You mean like the waltz? (Colin)
SPEAKER 3: (not so enthusiastically) Not exactly. (Jayda)
SPEAKER 4: How about the Foxtrot? (Emily)
SPEAKER 5: (disappointedly) Not quite what I had in mind. (Jayda)
SPEAKER 6: The Rumba? (Aiden)
SPEAKER 7: No. (Jayda)

10. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 10
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 8: Cha Cha? (Darren)
SPEAKER 9: No thanks. (Jayda)
SPEAKER 10: The Hoochie Cootchie? (Anna)
SPEAKER 11: Watch it. (Colin)
SPEAKER 12: Hold everything everybody! If it’s dance music you want, then dance music you’ll get. But when it comes to jazz, it don’t mean a thing. If it ain’t go that what? (Aiden)
ALL: (not too loudly) Swing.
SPEAKER 13: (louder) What?! (Braxton)
ALL: (loudly with a lot of enthusiasm) Swing!!!
SPEAKER 14: (smiling at the audience) Now, that’s what I’m talking about. (Jayda)

11. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 11
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #5: It Don’t Mean A Thing (Section 6 JOHNSON)
SPEAKER 1: One thing I never understood is why all the old jazzers had such funny names. (Rylee)
SPEAKER 2: You mean like Dizzy? (Eleanor)
SPEAKER 3: And Satchmo? (Carla)
SPEAKER 4: Lady Day? (Parker)
SPEAKER 5: And Jelly Roll? (Nicholas)
SPEAKER 6: Exactly! (Lacy)
SPEAKER 7: They made them up!! (Parker)

12. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 12
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 8: You see, these jazz players were very creative people. Their nicknames were either chosen by themselves or given to them by friends. (Sueli)
SPEAKER 9: Usually it was a name that said something about their personality and about the way they made jazz. (Carla)
(HEAD:)
SPEAKER 10: A lot of jazz is about being creative and yes, making it up as you go along. (Ryann)
SPEAKER 11: See! I told you! (Jordan)
SPEAKER 12: It’s called improvisation. Dizzy, Satchmo, Lady Day, Jelly Roll, and many others were very good at it. (Sam)

13. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 13
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 13: And probably none was better than the saxophone-playing kid from Kansas that some knew as Charlie Parker. (Elonnie)
SPEAKER 14: But whose friends knew him simply as “Yardbird!” (Bella)
SPEAKER 15: Yardbird? (Cali)
SPEAKER 16: Sure! Let’s meet down in Birdland and I’ll tell you all about it! (Alex)

14. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 14
Script by John Jacobson
SONG #6: Birdland (Section 7 HEAD)
SPEAKER 1: So that’s jazz! (Breslyn)
SPEAKER 2: Well, that was jazz. (Faith)
SPEAKER 3: What do you mean “that was jazz?” (Eden)
SPEAKER 4: What I mean is that jazz isn’t finished yet and never will be. (Faith)
(Section 7 CAMPBELL)
SPEAKER 5: That’s right. Jazz music is only a little over a hundred years old and it’s always changing. Who knows what it might sound like in another hundred years? (Juan)
SPEAKER 6: (incredulously) You mean they’re still making it up? (Marissa)

15. Script by John Jacobson
GOTTA BE JAZZ slide 15
Script by John Jacobson
SPEAKER 7: Exactly! But whether you hear it in New Orleans or New York (Brook)
SPEAKER 8: Rio de Janeiro or Bombay. . . (Joseph)
SPEAKER 9: Melbourne or Cape Town (Tyler)
SPEAKER 10: If the sound you hear is full of surprise and honesty (Coral)
SPEAKER 11: Strength and improvisation (Juan)
SPEAKER 12: Sadness and joy (Jasmine)
SPEAKER 13: Then it has to be (Sophia)
SPEAKER 14: It ought to be (Jaila)
SPEAKER 15: (happy at last) It’s gotta be (Juan)
ALL: JAZZ!