Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Students jam at The New School in New York.
(Photo: McKenna Lewis)The road we call jazz can take you anywhere — from your quiet hometown to the grandest stages of the world; from performing in bars on Saturdays to houses of worship on Sundays; from touring in a bus all night to jetting across the ocean to parts unknown.
But the road doesn’t stop there.
Learn to play the saxophone (or the trumpet, drums, piano …) and you might become an educator, an administrator, a festival director, a record producer, but don’t stop there — a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, an entrepreneur, even the President of the United States. (Remember, President Bill Clinton played saxophone and even read this magazine religiously while in high school.)
If you’re reading this, you are probably a student who wants to go to music school (or the concerned parent of that student). You found the road of jazz through a great teacher, either in school or through private lessons. And you’re ready for the next leg of your journey. DownBeat is here to help. On the pages of the attached electronic edition, you’ll find more than 190 schools ready to meet your jazz-study needs. There is something for everyone here, but with so many options, good luck sorting it out. We’ve tried to help. Do you want a big school, or is a smaller institution better suit your style? What can you afford? (We know that’s a huge question and a fair one.) What kind environment do you want? And who would you like to learn from? Each school entry has these answers and more, like information on scholarships and financial aid opportunities.
We’ve also provided some food for thought within these pages. First, there’s an article by Jay Sweet on selecting a school and preparing for the audition (see page 118). We’ve also included a piece about what life is like in those first few days and weeks of school and how to get ready for the transition as an incoming freshman (see page 100). Finally, we show you the lives of four professionals in the jazz world who went to school to learn to play music, but are applying their expertise in other areas of the industry (see page 76).
We hope you find the guide useful, and we can’t wait to see where the road of jazz takes you. Enjoy the journey! DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
