Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center Release Jazz Appreciation Curriculum
By Marie Holmes

Wynton Marsalis, renowned jazz musician and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, divided the auditorium of MS 44 into two parts and taught the audience a simple call and response – “How are you?” “I’m fine” – to demonstrate the clave, a common rhythm in Latin Jazz. The middle-schoolers that joined Marsalis onstage, who were selected for their perfect attendance records, had already mastered the clave and other elements of jazz music. They wowed the audience with their improvisational skills as they demonstrated the break, scat-singing and playing their kazoos with aplomb.

Marsalis and others came to MS 44 to promote their Jazz for Young People Curriculum, a joint effort between Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and Scholastic, Inc. Mayor Bloomberg stopped by to congratulate Marsalis and his collegues and to officially proclaim February 26, 2002 Jazz Education Day in New York City.

Marsalis explained that the curriculum grew out of the Jazz for Young People family concert series and outreach work in the schools. The curriculum, Marsalis explained, “travels without us” and has “an impact that lasts far beyond us being in a city or a school for a day or an hour.”

Members of the Board of Education have promised to purchase a curriculum package, which contain 10 CDs narrated by Marsalis with music by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and written materials for teacher and students, for each district arts superintendent. Marsalis emphasized that the curriculum is designed to teach music appreciation, not how to play music. “It’s not really for music students, it’s for general students,” he said. Neither are the materials designed for specially trained music educators. “Anybody, really, can understand it and teach it,” said Marsalis. Laura Johnson, of Jazz at Lincoln Center, described the materials as a “curriculum for how to listen to jazz,” mentioning the need to create new jazz audiences as well as muscians.

Mayor Bloomberg and spokespersons from Jazz at Lincoln Center all underscored the uniquely American development of jazz, which was refered to as “one of America’s greatest creations” and “one of the centerpieces of American culture.”

The 4th-9th graders for whom the curriculum is designed are, of course, more likely to be listening to the all-American voices of Britney Spears and N’Sync rather than Billie Holiday or Dizzy Gilespie albums. No matter, explained Marsalis. Music education can cultivate good taste as well as analytical thinking. He encouraged teachers to have students share examples of their favorite music. “Whatever the kids like, it’ll have breaks and responses,” he explained. “I’m not into teaching them my own prejudices.”

Marsalis takes a more pedagogic approach. “Instead of saying, ‘I hate rap music’ – and I do hate it – I say, ‘this is what a break is.’”#

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