Jazz Education: The Evolution of Jazz Mentorship

Race in Jazz Education and DH

Given that Digital Humanities projects are focused on transforming archived information into content on a platform that can be accessed by the greater community, we must look to who creates the DH projects to understand the inherent bias that exists in the discipline. It is well documented that primarily white males of higher socio-economic status and eduction are those creating DH projects. Thus, the stories and documents that are most likely to be presented in DH projects are those that perpetuate the standing and inflate the creators of the site. Additionally, the majority of DH scholars and educators that may use DH projects are also white. Between the creators and educators, there persists an bias in the field of DH. One of the reasons why the discipline lacks diversity may be because of the socio-economic gap that renders higher education exclusive. Because DH is a rather new and growing discipline, most programs only exist at the college-level. It is important for the DH community to work on providing more contributions from people of color. Additionally, because the nature of the discipline is defined by technology, when one does not have access to the vital tools, they are excluded from the attaining the information and knowledge necessary to engage in the creation of DH projects or even even have the capability to access them.
 

In reference to race in jazz education, similar issues arise. With the formalization of jazz education seen through college-level programs, it is important to look at how this shift has affected accessibility for different groups of people. The Department of Education released data that visualizes the racial discrepancies that exist within institutionalized jazz programs. The extreme disparity that gives preference to caucasian musicians is problematic. As you can see, the total number of black jazz musicians with Bachelor Degrees in Jazz & Jazz Studies is nearly less than number of white women alone. The lack of accessibility to jazz music as a result of the formalization of jazz education is a concerning trend. However, the following page on the revitalization efforts to return jazz mentorship is a promising start to closing the racial gap.

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Table of Contents
1. Evolution of Jazz Mentorship
2. Introduction
3. History of Jazz Education and Mentorship
4. Buster Williams
5. Germaine Bazzle
6. Bob Schulz
7. Allan Vache
8. Claude Williams
9. Race in Jazz Education and DH
10. Modern Mentorship
11. Our Other DH Method
12. Conclusion
13. Additional Works Cited ​
14. Annotated Bibliography
15. Process
16. Rubric

 

 

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