Timeline of jazz education – Wikipedia

Jazz Studies bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the 1980s Berklee: The Berklee College of Music, in 1988, drew students from all over the world – roughly 20 percent were international, 40 percent were from New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Programs at Berklee stressed practical skills in areas that included film scoring, songwriting, and music production. N Texas: The University of North Texas College of Music had, in 1988, the second largest program in jazz, after Berklee. Rutgers: Rutgers University, since 1968, had been one of the few institutions offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in performance, with a jazz option. Notable teachers in the jazz programs, at the time, included Larry Ridley, Kenny Barron, Ted Dunbar, and master trumpet teacher William Fielder (1924–2009). Indiana: Indiana University hired David Baker (1931–2016) in 1967 with a mandate to design a degree-granting program in jazz studies. The university, during the 1968–1969 school-year, approved a baccalaureate in jazz studies, and in 1979, approved a master’s degree program in jazz studies. Wilfred Bain, the presiding dean until 1973, was the also the presiding dean at North Texas, where, in 1942, he approved jazz arranging class to be taught by Gene Hall. Baker led a distinguished career as a pioneer in jazz education at the university level. Southern: Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, formerly headed by free-jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Alvin Batiste, produced several prominent New Orleans jazz artists. Alvin Batiste is a cousin of the grandfather of Jon Batiste, bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Howard: Howard University had a strong reputation and, in the 1980s, offered a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies. USC: Thom David Mason, DMA (born 1941), founded the department of jazz studies at the USC Thornton School of Music in 1983 and was its chairman from 1983 to 1996. During that period he created the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts programs in jazz studies. William Ennis Thomson, PhD, the presiding dean until 1992, is an alumnus of North Texas (1948; Bachelor of Music in Composition) where he had been a trumpeter in the inaugural Laboratory Dance Band (1946–1947) – the forerunner to the One O’Clock Lab Band. Miami: The University of Miami jazz program, in 1980, emphasized writing and arranging commercial music and, in the 1980s, offered a Bachelor of Music degree in Studio Music and Jazz. Commencing fall 1966, Miami hired Jerry Coker – who had been David Baker’s classmate at Indiana – with a mandate to design and institute a degree-granting program in jazz studies. Bill Lee, PhD, Dean of the School of Music from 1964 to 1982, had been a student at North Texas from 1945 to 1950, earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at a time when its jazz studies program had been launched. Wm Paterson: William Paterson University, which started its jazz program around 1968, had Rufus Reid, who had been director of jazz performing groups for the music department, in 1981, became director of the department’s jazz studies and performance program.^[38] Eastman: The Eastman School of Music has, since the 1940s, offered jazz studies. Back then, Jack End (1918–1986) directed its first official jazz band and also taught arranging.^[IV] Limited jazz classes were in the catelog when Chuck Magione became director of the jazz ensemble in 1968, whose studio orchestra (big band) was critically acclaimed. Despite having produced many jazz artists and jazz educators, Eastman did not offer a comprehensive jazz studies program until about 1974, when, under the leadership of Rayburn Wright, the Department of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media emerged. By 1980s, Eastman was offering jazz oriented degrees through master’s. Ray Wright is credited for having founded Eastman’s graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as creating the Eastman Studio Orchestra.^[26][39] NEC: The New England Conservatory, under the leadership of its President, Gunther Schuller, founded its program in 1968 and rapidly became a leading institution for jazz studies. The conservatory, in the 1980s, offered jazz oriented degrees through master’s. NEC is the first major traditional music conservatory to offer a degree in jazz. MSM: The Manhattan School of Music added a jazz department in 1982, followed by a jazz oriented master’s in 1984, and a bachelor’s in 1987. The school’s influence in formalizing jazz education rapidly rose to prominence. Long before formalizing its jazz curriculum, the school had some of New York’s top jazz artists on its faculty and as students.^[40] Bridgeport: The University of Bridgeport started its jazz studies program in 1971 under the direction of Neil Slater (born 1931), who ran it for 11 years. Slater then, from 1981 to 1982, was Chair of the Jazz Studies Department, and director of the One O’Clock Lab Band, at the North Texas. Jazz Studies PhD programs in the 1980s Few institutions offered doctorates in jazz in the 1980s. And few jazz educators held doctorates. Billy Taylor, who had over 23 honorary doctorates in his lifetime, had earned a PhD in 1975 from the University of Massachusetts. His dissertation was titled “The History and Development of Jazz Piano: A New Perspective for Educators.” Donald Byrd earned an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1983, where he wrote “The Performance and Analysis of an Original Afro-American Musical Composition for Trumpet and Orchestra.” Of the few jazz educators in the 1980s holding PhDs who were associated with jazz research, most had migrated from non-jazz fields such as general music theory, music history, musicology, and ethnomusicology. In the 1980s, only two institutions offered a PhD in jazz: NYU: The Department of Music and Performing Arts at the Steinhardt School, New York University, offered a PhD in Jazz Performance and Composition, but the degree, at the time, had no research requirement. UNC: The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley offered a PhD in Jazz Pedagogy, but, according to Lewis Porter who published an article in 1989 on the topic, the degree did not require scholarly research. Porter, in 1989, stated that the field was in dire need of PhDs, and noted that, at the time, the existing programs did a poor job attracting African American scholars at PhD levels in jazz.^[40] Also in 1989, Warrick L. Carter (1942–2017), Chairman of the Department of Music at Governors State University, estimated that 15 or 20 schools offered postgraduate jazz programs leading to a master’s degrees.^[41]