The essence of freedom is understanding
Black Student Movement Official Newspaper
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
m
Volume XIX, Number 4
February 9, 1989
Jazz Conservatory Opens in Durham
By Gerda Gallop
News Editor
By 1991, all eyes in the jazz commun
ity will be focused on Durham when it
becomes home to the Thelonius Monk
Institute of Jazz Studies, the first con
servatory in the world dedicated ex
clusively to the instruction of jazz per
formance.
The $12 million complex will be lo
cated in downtown Durham and will in
clude an academic building, student
dormitories and a residence hall for pro
fessors and visiting artists-in-residence
by completion in 1991, said Tom Car
ter, executive director of the Thelonius
Monk Institute in Washington, D.C.
“We are filled with excitement and
anticipation about working with the
local community to get them more in
volved with jazz,” Carter said.
One hundred fifty of the top per
forming artists in the world will be cho
sen to study at the Institute on an audi
tion basis for the 4-year program with
35 students per class. Carter said.
Jazz masters such as Dizzy Gillespie,
Max Roach, Herbie Hancock, Wynton
Marsalis and others will lend their ex
pertise as instructors, Carter added.
A $50 million endowment from cor
porate and private donors and some
government funding will allow students
to attend the Institute tuition-free. Car
ter said.
The Institute will also sponsor a sum
mer study abroad program, seminars,
workshops, performance competitions
and other programs locally and na
tionally, Carter said.
Durham was chosen for the location
of the jazz conservatory over such cities
as New York, Detroit, Washington,
D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los
Angeles for several reasons including:
Thelonius Monk, for whom the Insti
tute is named, was born in Rocky
Mount and because of the continuing
development of the arts in Durham. But
most importantly the institute was
brought here because of the efforts of
Paul Jeffrey, director of jazz studies at
Duke University.
Jeffrey was a friend of Monk’s and
played saxophone in his band during
the 1970s.
“The idea for the Institute started
with a chance remark at Monk’s funeral
when someone compared his talents to
those of Beethoven,” Jeffrey said.
“They were both geniuses and innova
tors in stylistic art form.”
Jeffrey and members of the Beetho
ven Society of America talked with
Monk’s family about creating a special
project to commemorate the contribu
tions of this legendary jazz performer
and as a tribute to jazz itself, Carter
said.
Plans for the Institute began im
mediately following Monk’s death in
1982.
The facility is administered by the
Thelonius Monk Institute, the Beetho
ven Society of America and the Thelo
nius Monk Foundation.
The Institute is also affiliated with
Duke and North Carolina Central uni
versities which were chosen to become
involved in the academic planning of
the Institute’s programs, said Dr.
Charles H. Gilchrist, chairman of
NCCU’s department of music and di
rector of choral activities.
NCCU has had a state approved jazz
program since 1974, added Gilchrist,
who serves on the academic board of
the Institute.
According to Gilchrist, the Institute
will focus on jazz performance with na
tional and international artists as
instructors, which makes the program
unique.
“Most of the jazz greats learned their
jazz skills by hearing or playing in what
you might call ‘on-the-job training’,
rather than in an academic setting,” he
said. “At the Institute, we will have
artists come in and work with the stu
dents who will benefit academically
from them.”
Maria Fisher, president of the Bee
thoven Society of .■\merica, said she be
came involved in establishing the Insti
tute because of her desire to preserve
jazz as the unique music of America.
“Thelonius Monk was a classical jazz
artist,” Fisher said. “He was to jazz
what Beethoven was to classical music.
They both changed the genre of their
music.”
The Beethoven Society of America,
based in Washington, D.C., is a social
and cultural organization which honors
classical styles of music by sponsoring
concerts, performance competitions
and social fundraisers, Fisher said.
“Jazz is usually judged by European
classical standards,” Jeffrey said.
“Music should be judged and taught on
its own merits, and when we start to
have places like the Institute, the United
States will give jazz the proper respect it
never had.”
Jeffrey feels that students of music
do not have enough exposure to live
performance and to innovators in the
music world, which he says the Institute
will provide.
“The Institute will train the best mus
icians in jazz to raise the level of jazz
awareness and performance,” Jeffrey
said.
Thelonius Monk was a black pianist-
composer who was recognized as a jazz
innovator. He was associated with Diz
zy Gillespie and Charlie Parker who
were all instrumental in the devel
opment of “bebop” during the 1950s.
Monk and others made significant
changes in the melodic and harmonic
structures of jazz and further developed
jazz into a more sophisticated type of
music.
Among Monk’s works are: Round
About Midnight, Fifty-second Street
Theme, Ruby and In Waliced Bud.
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