In Alan P. Merriam and Raymond W. Mack’s article Jazz Community, authors examine the change of jazz community from an isolated group in which musicians are varied from degree of music education and formal education, to a widely accepted community which not only opens to audience regardless ethnicity, but also being accepting to musicians from diverse ethnic background. Though not in particular emphasized by Merriam and Mack in their article, the education played a key factor through the change of jazz community, which allows jazz musicians to advocate for themselves, transform it from a music for entertainment to a form of self-expression, and breaks down the racial barriers among jazz musicians.
 

The Beginning

Most jazzmen are recruited in their middle or late teens. Talented youngsters may reach the big-time before they are eighteen; to do this requires a single minded concentration found in almost no other group of teenagers with the possible exception of athletes. While other young people are children, occupationally these youngsters are men. But they are a strange sort of men, since they are in part self-made and they have little experience in the construction of personalities.
-- Alan P. Merriam and Raymond W. Mack, Jazz Community

Jazz, began as a black music, was rejected by white dominated society in early 20th century. Argued in Jazz Community, the major reason why jazz was rejected by white audience, was because its root in African culture, which was seen as the slave culture. Yet, in order for jazz musicians to survive, they had to play jazz as entertainers, and thus the idea of self-expression further collided with their need for the living, caused common confusions among jazz musicians to identify themselves.

Under such societal pressure, the jazz musicians were constantly facing risks of unemployment, lack of social security and insurance coverage due to the nature of their job. The jazz musicians, were also subjects of economic exploitation of club owners, music commentators and other commercial agency because of their generally lack of education and immaturity.

For the most part, the jazz musician receives relatively little formal education. While Lastrucci, speaking specifically of dance musicians, estimated that the average education of the musician "is the completion of the first year of college," this seems to be somewhat optimistic, and the general average within the profession as a whole is probably lower.

-- Alan P. Merriam and Raymond W. Mack, Jazz Community

The Change

The jazz community, regardless of the isolation and rejection, remained attractive to young artists as a symbol of rebellion. At meanwhile, "since approximately 1945 the degree of education and the amount of world-awareness of the jazz musician has increased substantially; many musicians have travelled extensively throughout the world and a higher and higher proportion is conservatory trained". It is reasonably to believe that such improvement in general education of jazz musicians help to reduce the dependency of jazz musicians to critics and others to speak for themselves. They are now able to elaborate their feelings, their muse and intention by themselves, and that makes the interviews featured in the Fillus Jazz Archive possible.
 

A further characteristic of the jazz community is the almost total lack of prejudice on the basis of race, religion, ethnic origin, etc. There is probably less prejudice of this sort in the jazz community than in any other segment of American society...such differences are tolerated "because they do not matter. It is easy to be tolerant in areas where one does not care, and the only thing [the jazz musician] cares about seriously is jazz."
-- Alan P. Merriam and Raymond W. Mack, Jazz Community