All of the required listening, and some supplemental listening, is on this list. Each link will take you to a listening guide, and from there you can start the music.

• Preliminaries
• Comparison of syncopated and unsyncopated melodies (Brahms and Santana)
• Roots of Blues and Jazz
• Field hollers from Senegal and Mississippi
• No More Lord (work song)
• Beggin' the Blues (unaccompanied, solo blues song)
• Goin' Down to the River (country blues)
• Ragtime and Early Jazz
• Maple Leaf Rag - Scott Joplin (1897)
• Maple Leaf Rag - Jelly Roll Morton (1938)
• Tiger Rag (original quadrille) - Jelly Roll Morton (1938)
• Tiger Rag - Jelly Roll Morton (1938)
• A break - Jelly Roll Morton (1938)
• A riff - Jelly Roll Morton (1938)
• Dead Man Blues - Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers (1926)
• Carolina Shout - James P. Johnson (1921)
• Dippermouth Blues - King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (1923)
• Lost Your Head Blues - Bessie Smith (1926)
• Armstrong, Ellington, and the birth of the big band
• Struttin' With Some Barbecue - Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (1927)
• Potato Head Blues - Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven (1927)
• West End Blues - Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (1928)
• Dinah -- Louis Armstrong (1933)
• Sweethearts on Parade - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra (1930)
• Singin the Blues -- Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (1927)
• Tiger Rag -- Art Tatum (1940)
• The Stampede -- Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra (1926)
• Black and Tan Fantasy -- Duke Ellington (1927)
• Concerto for Cootie -- Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (1940)
• Ko-Ko -- Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (1940)
• Cotton Tail -- Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (1940)
• In a Mello Tone -- Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (1940)
• Sophisticated Lady (excerpt) -- Duke Ellington (1940)
• Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue -- Duke Ellington (1937)
• Swing
• Dinah -- Django Reinhardt and the Quintette of the Hot Club of France (1934)
• Moten Swing -- Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1932)
• He's Funny That Way -- Billie Holiday and her Orchestra (1937)
• Taxi War Dance -- Count Basie and His Orchestra (1939)
• Lester Leaps In -- Count Basie's Kansas City Seven (1939)
• Down South Camp Meetin' -- Benny Goodman and his Orchestra (1937)
• Body and Soul -- Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra (1939)
• Bebop
• I Got Rhythm -- Don Byas and Slam Stewart (1945)
• Hot House -- The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (1945)
• Ko-Ko -- Charlie Parker's Re-boppers (1945)
• Crazyology -- The Charlie Parker Sextet (1947)
• Parker's Mood -- The Charlie Parker All Stars (1948)
• Manteca -- Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra (1947)
• A Night in Tunisia -- The Bud Powell Trio (1951)
• Criss-Cross -- The Thelonious Monk Quintet (1951)
• Trinkle Tinkle -- The Thelonious Monk Quartet (1957)
• Pent-up House -- Sonny Rollins Plus Four (1956)
• Oleo -- The Miles Davis Quintet (1956)
• Cool and Post-Bop
• Django -- The Modern Jazz Quartet (1960)
• Boplicity -- Miles Davis and his Orchestra (1949)
• Summertime -- Miles Davis with Gil Evans's Orchestra (1958)
• So What -- The Miles Davis Sextet (1959)
• My Funny Valentine (excerpt) -- The Miles Davis Quintet (1964)
• Footprints -- The Miles Davis Quintet (1966)
• Countdown -- The John Coltrane Quartet (1959)
• A Love Supreme, part 1 (Acknowledgement) -- The John Coltrane Quartet (1964)
• Blue in Green -- The Bill Evans Trio (1959)
• Original Faubus Fables -- The Charles Mingus Quartet (1960)
• Lonely Woman -- The Ornette Coleman Quartet (1959)
• Corcovado -- Stan Getz and João Gilberto (1963)