Jazz in Schools

Last Friday and yesterday I did gigs at a couple of Middle School. They were with a trio put together my the Mancini Institute, we played some songs then talked about jazz and our instruments and stuff.

It got me thinking. I really feel it's only a matter of time before we see rock and hip-hop in academia like jazz. I'm sitting there listening to the drummer (who was the speaker for the group) talk about jazz and explain the music and I'm thinking "this is pretty far from where jazz was in the 20s and 30s."

You have to understand jazz started in nightclubs and brothels. It was the music of African-Americans who were expressing their need for freedom through their instruments since they couldn't do it in society. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with teaching jazz in schools like this. But it's rarely an accurate representation of what the music really is.

So when you think about a prof standing in front of a classroom and breaking down the rhyme schemes and lyrical subject matter of Notorious B.I.G. it's not unlike a prof who these days is in front of a classroom explaining the creative genius of Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. That's hard for us to swallow, I mean, Biggie was a drug dealer and a thug who probably was murdered because of gang relations--how could that be brought into academia!? Well, Parker was a terrible heroin addict and a horrible person who would steal from his friends, lie, and cheat for his habit. Ellington hosted notorious orgies. I'm sure Biggie's ties to the street will be noted in classrooms as Parker's habit is. But lip service does nothing for context sometimes.