From the Club to the Classroom: Jazz Education Through the Ages

Out of Touch?

In 1958 Billy Taylor recognized some issues with the music education system. Music teachers were losing their jobs left and right as they focused on the obviously exceptional student and neglected others, but teachers did not listen to him when he told them this. Taylor ended up founding Jazzmobile, which teaches students who can play but can’t read notes, students who can read but not improvise, and others. The program put students in class with great musicians. Although not a formal college or school, Jazzmobile became a well-regarded music institution. Jazzmobile stems from neighborhood-sponsored free jazz concerts in New York. Interestingly, it was not intended to be a school, rather a way to reach at-risk youth in Harlem during the early 60s. Many Jazzmobile performers ended up holding sidewalk classes in the streets of NY as the program aged. In the earlier days, Jazzmobile was simply a workshop, but it evolved to a Saturday school with a core of musicians as educators. Today, it is widely considered a success.

Taylor recognized more issues with formal jazz education as well. Before Jazz was taught in schools, classical music like Bach and Mozart dominated music education. With Jazz relatively new as an art form compared to others, many educators treat it as an afterthought. They use it as something new and cool to entice students, but do not actually believe in teaching it because they consider classical music the gold standard. However, Taylor believes that a student could start with learning just simple jazz, never learn any other type of music, and be able to play music from any of the world’s greatest classical artists with ease. 

Additionally, Taylor notes other problems with formal education today. Teachers tend to neglect individuality and force students to conform to the way they teach or want them to perform. Students end up able to play the notes and challenging pieces of music, but are unable to put their own touch on each piece. Students graduating from certain schools are easy to figure out because of the similarities in how the school teaches them to approach the music.

Taylor himself grew up in an education system that taught him classical styles of music, but he learned to play jazz piano from a number of key mentors, not through the formal system. He believes in creative teaching rather than forcing specific musical elements down the throat of students. Specifically, he wonders why kids today are so enamored with complex and abstract sounds, but in the classroom music teachers default to teaching classical music because they think that is real music. But in reality, music changes and preferences change as well. If the music education is not able to adapt with these changes, than music education will continue to face the same issues.

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