Quincy Jones Joins Smithsonian to Launch Jazz Appreciation Month

By Butler T. Gray
Washington File Staff Writer

(The first annual celebration will be held in April 2002)

Legendary bandleader, producer and composer Quincy Jones joined the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History July 20 to launch Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz annually from both a historic and a living American art form.

The first celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month is scheduled for April 2002, when the museum will spotlight the history and music of jazz through concerts, programs and museum collections.

JAM was created to encourage young and old people alike to participate in jazz - to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs. JAM is expected to encourage people generally to take jazz more seriously as a vital part of America's cultural patrimony and as a great gift to the world.

The museum designated the month of April for two reasons. The first is because it maximizes JAM's educational potential. It's important that JAM be held during the school year, so schools can participate and April is the last full month that all colleges (as well as high schools) in the United States are in session. The second reason is that April is the birth month of a number of leading figures in jazz such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerry Mulligan, Tito Puente, Bessie Smith, Johnny Dodds, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, as well as others.

"Jazz is a vital part of America, and as a nation's history museum we want to raise public awareness of jazz as one of America's cultural treasures," said Spencer Crew, director of the National Museum of American History. "We hope JAM will continue to nourish the growing appetite for jazz."

"I come here and I'm proud of the fact that jazz is now in a resurgence phase," said Congressman John Conyers (Democrat of Michigan). More and more people are beginning to look at those who created and sustained this music during this past century under "extraordinarily difficult conditions," said Conyers.

Jones, who performed with the Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie bands, is an ideal ambassador for jazz, said John Edward Hass, the museum's curator for American Music. Having been active in show business from more than 50 years, Jones is the most nominated Grammy artist with 77 nominations. He was among the first black composers to be accepted in Hollywood and now has more than 40 major motion picture and television scores to his credit. Jones is also renowned as a record company executive, magazine publisher and social activist.

"I can only hope that one day America will recognize that our indigenous music - jazz - is the heart and soul of all popular music, and that we cannot afford to let its legacy slip into obscurity," said Jones. "The creating of Jazz Appreciation Month is a step towards honoring that legacy."

The Department of State has joined with the museum as a partner, along with other organizations including the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Association for Music Education, the International Association of Jazz Educators, and the Grammy Foundation.

The Smithsonian operates the world's most comprehensive set of jazz programs. The National Museum of American History is home to the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, more than 100 oral histories of musicians, composers and others, and 100,000 pages of Ellington's unpublished music, as well as Ella Fitzgerald's famous red dress, Dizzy Gillespie's angled trumpet and Benny Goodman's clarinet.