Following its inception in the early twentieth century, jazz was quick to spread within American popular culture. The genre’s uptempo beats and unique style drew enormous crowds of party goers into nightclubs and musical venues across the country. However, American Universities were not as quick to adapt the new style into their musical curriculums. The lack of support from the institutions slowed the growth of jazz in its early stages, but once the university learned to accept jazz it helped the music reach new heights.
 

Due to the American Universities failure to recognize jazz as it was rapidly growing across the country, resulted in a student-led movement. Even though students were learning classical music styles and techniques in the class rooms, these were not the genres they most closely associated themselves with. Students found themselves more interested in jazz, which was the popular style at the time. As a result, students at universities across America began forming their own jazz bands in the 1930s. These organizations were run in a similar fashion to an extracurricular student-organized club on a modern campus. They became known as “dance bands”, named for the venues they performed at, which were mostly student parties. These clubs presented future jazz musicians with their first opportunity to perfect their craft.

The presence of “dance bands” threatened the American institutions, as the presence faced criticism from educators, who thought that the style of jazz interfered with the traditional music studies. They claimed that the new style of play was teaching a different rhythm, that prevented students from succeeding in slower paced musical stylings.
 

Business became the main reason for colleges and universities to first incorporate jazz into their curriculum. In 1947 the University of North Texas officially became the first school to offer a degree in jazz. The school wanted to capitalize on the dance music phenomenon that was growing across the nation. The administration saw a formal dance band program as a good way to recruit students and the existence of a successful student organization, ran by M.E. “Gene” Hall, made the transition easy.

Jazz experienced its greatest growth in the university between 1960 and 1970. The monetization of jazz began in the late 1950s. Publishing companies saw an incentive in printing guidebooks, records, and other teaching materials for new jazz students. A growing industry resulted in more concrete teaching principles and music theory, which was critical in bringing improvisation off of the street and into the classroom. From 1960 to 1970 the number of college jazz bands increased from 30 to 450, and these were led by faculty not students. From 1964 to 1974 the number of accredited jazz courses increased from 30 to 450. The largest victory for jazz education came in 1967 at the Music Educators’ National Conference (MENC), when the nation’s music education governing body announced it would include jazz in its curricula.

“Music of all periods, styles, forms, and cultures belongs in the curriculum. The musical repertory should be expanded to involve music of our time in its rich variety, including currently popular teen-age music and avant garde music, American folk music, and music of other cultures.”  

Known today as the “Tanglewood Declaration”, the announcement marked the inclusion of jazz in the institutions.

-zk