Do not think this is gonna be an easy GE. The prof is nice, but the exams were rough. We had a midterm, final, and final project. There was rarely a study guide for any of the exams, and when there was it was just a list of the names of like 100 people we went over with no guidance on what to know about them. Attendance was not taken, but missing class could mess you up because everything on the exams was some niche thing he talked about for maybe to seconds. There was also a listening part of the exam where he would play a (mainly) instrumental part of a song and you'd have to identity the name, artist, year recorded, or some other random fact.

This class is very easy as a GE, but I found a lot of the assignments to be kind of tedious. You are given much creative freedom on the final project, but most will likely pursue a research paper style thing. Professor Bolin is a really cool guy, but the two hour lectures can tend to drag on. If you're interested in jazz or music at all, I would recommend this class as an easy GE. However, if you have substantial knowledge of jazz music, you'd be better off spending your time elsewhere. That being said, much of the history taught is quite interesting.