Experiencing Jazz, as the title suggests, provides an immersive experience using an integrated text, CD-ROM, and audio CD anthology designed for the non-musician or musician whose primary focus is not jazz. Listening to seminal recordings, learning about how musicians create the music, and hearing the music first hand through an interactive companion CD-ROM rich in helpful tutorials as well as audio and video examples helps the non-musician to fully appreciate and become involved in the jazz experience.

The CD-ROM offers excerpts of interviews with many of the performers who made jazz history, as well as other valuable information designed to create active, informed and discerning listeners.

The textbook helps to place important musical trends in a larger cultural and historical context, helping the reader to relate jazz history to other familiar events. It does not overwhelm with long lists of musicians, but focuses on the primary innovators who moved the music in new directions.