Marsalis Jams is a program of the Music Education Initiative, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering music education in schools and colleges and to seeking innovative ways to enhance public and community support for the arts. MEI was co-founded by jazz musicians Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr., and Marsalis Jams is its first program.
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.
Marsalis Jams brings leading established jazz ensembles to high school and college campuses for interactive mini-residencies. The components of the program are workshops for student musicians, information sessions with the general student population, and a culminating performance in which the visiting group performs its own music and is then joined by student musicians for a jam session. The goals of the program are to (1) provide opportunities for student musicians to perform with established professional groups, (2) expose student audiences to live jazz performance, and (3) expand opportunities for working bands outside of the currently limited nightclub and concert settings.
A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp on tunes, songs and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements, except for when the group is playing well-known jazz standards or covers of existing popular songs. Original jam sessions, also 'free flow sessions', are often used by musicians to develop new material (music) and find suitable arrangements. Both styles can be used simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to evenings where a jam session coordinator or host acts as a "gatekeeper" to ensure that only appropriate-level performers take the stage, to sophisticated improvised recording sessions by professionals which are intended to be broadcast live on radio or TV or edited and released to the public.
In 2008, Marsalis Jams established Marsalis Berklee Jams, an ongoing program with the Berklee College of Music that brings bands to the school’s newly created performance space Café 939.
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including rock, flamenco, hip hop, reggae, salsa, heavy metal and bluegrass. Berklee alumni have won 294 Grammy Awards, more than any other colleges, and 95 Latin Grammy Awards. Other notable accolades include 19 Emmy Awards, 5 Tony Awards and 5 Academy Awards.
Marsalis Jams past school participants have included:
Miami, officially the City of Miami, is the cultural, economic and financial center of South Florida. Miami is the seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. The city covers an area of about 56.6 square miles (147 km2), between the Everglades to the west and Biscayne Bay on the east; with a 2017 estimated population of 463,347, Miami is the sixth most densely populated major city in the United States. The Miami metropolitan area is home to 6.1 million people and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Miami's metro area is the second-most populous metropolis in the southeastern United States and fourth-largest urban area in the U.S. Miami has the third tallest skyline in the United States with over 300 high-rises, 80 of which stand taller than 400 feet.
Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.
Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas, fourth most populous city in the United States, as well as the sixth most populous in North America, with an estimated 2018 population of 2,328,419. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with a population of 6,997,384 in 2018.
David Sánchez is a Grammy-winning jazz tenor saxophonist from Puerto Rico.
Miguel Zenón is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Zenón has released many albums as a band leader and appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman.
James Williams was an American jazz pianist.
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Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American virtuoso trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammy Awards and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the son of jazz musician Ellis Marsalis Jr. (pianist), grandson of Ellis Marsalis Sr., and brother of Branford (saxophonist), Delfeayo (trombonist), and Jason (drummer). Marsalis is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year.
The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) is an undergraduate and graduate institution for the performing arts in the United States. It is part of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The school was founded in 1880 as the Ann Arbor School of Music, and it was later incorporated into the University of Michigan.
The Boston Conservatory at Berklee is a performing arts conservatory located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance and theater.
The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder. Dating in its earliest form from 1883, it has a distinguished history in the intensive professional training for musical performance, musical composition, research in all fields of music, and comprehensive music education. The Elder Conservatorium of Music and its forerunners have been integral parts of the University of Adelaide since the early 1880s.
Creekview High School is a public high school located in the city of Carrollton, Texas, United States. It is classified as a 5A school by the UIL. It is a part of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District located in southeast Denton County. In 2015, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is the regional, pre-professional arts training center for high school students in Louisiana. NOCCA opened in 1973 as a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. Located in New Orleans, it provides intensive instruction in culinary arts, creative writing, dance, media arts, music, theatre arts, and visual arts while demanding simultaneous academic excellence.
The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival, the largest west of the Mississippi, that takes place on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho in February.
The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point at Wausau, one of the University of Wisconsin Colleges, is a two-year campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It is located near downtown Wausau, Wisconsin, United States, and adjacent to 78-acre (32 ha) Marathon Park.
Dillard High School is a historic public middle and high school located in Fort Lauderdale Florida. The school was established in 1907 and named for black-education advocate James H. Dillard, and it is a part of Broward County Public Schools.
The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is an annual high school jazz festival and competition that takes place every May at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. The festival is aimed at encouraging young musicians to play music by Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians.
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization co-founded in 1986 by Thelonious Monk III, the son of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and jazz musician Clark Terry. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, after its longtime Board Chairman, Herbie Hancock.
Caleb Chapman is an American music educator, author, entrepreneur, producer, bandleader, and musician from Derry, New Hampshire who currently resides in Utah. A graduate of Brigham Young University, he is the founder and Chairman of Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse, a professional musician training program with locations across the U.S. and the director of Caleb Chapman's Crescent Super Band. Chapman has been recognized for his contributions to music education and has received numerous honors for his work as an educator.
Tia Fuller is a saxophonist, composer, and educator, and a member of the all-female band touring with Beyoncé. Fuller is currently a faculty member in the ensembles department at Berklee College of Music.
Jack Leroy Petersen is an American jazz guitarist and educator. He was a pedagogical architect for jazz guitar and jazz improvisation at Berklee College of Music, University of North Texas College of Music, and University of North Florida.
Each style and era of jazz adopted new techniques to help educate younger musicians. Early forms of jazz education were more informal. Since the first degree program was founded in 1947, the rise of institutionalized jazz education, resulted in jazz education becoming more formalized and more structured. Formalized jazz education has brought a new wave of interest in jazz. JazzTimes.com currently lists 492 collegiate jazz programs globally. This database is exclusive to just schools that offer majors and does not include the number of schools that also offer jazz courses in their curriculum. The formalization of jazz was and still is a controversial subject. Many professional musicians believe that it has harmed the spirit of the music, while others maintain that it has been beneficial for the art form.
Anthony Branker is an American musician and educator of Caribbean descent whose work as a composer, educator, scholar, conductor, and performer has been featured on the international stage in Brazil, Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Italy, Estonia, Denmark, Greece, China, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Russia, Lithuania, and Japan as well as throughout the United States. Branker was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and raised in Piscataway and Plainfield, New Jersey. He attended public schools in Piscataway and graduated from Piscataway Township High School in 1976. where he was involved in the music program under the direction of R. Bruce Bradshaw and Joseph T. Mundi. Following high school, Branker attended Princeton University where he received his B.A. in Music and a Certificate in African American Studies. His graduate studies took him to the University of Miami for a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy and later to Columbia University, Teachers College where he received the degrees of Master of Education and Doctor of Education; both with specialties in Music and Music Education.
Todd Stoll is an American jazz trumpeter and Vice President of Education at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, is “the first school of music to be established in the University of California system.” First established in 2007 under the purview of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture and the UCLA Division of Humanities, the UC Board of Regents formally voted in January 2016 to establish the school.[1] Supported in part by a generous endowment of $30 million from the Herb Alpert Foundation, the school carries several missions: to educate students through collaborations between performance and scholarship, cultural understandings of the art of music throughout the world, curricula centered on what students need to succeed in music and in life, cross disciplinary integration in the context of a great research university, and connections to the musical life of Los Angeles and Southern California.[1]
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