“Well, you know – They say music speaks louder than words so we would rather voice our opinion that way if you don’t mind ---Good!” – Charlie Parker
In 1987, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution declaring jazz “a rare and valuable national treasure.”
Jazz is America’s quintessential musical expression that is sometimes referred to as “American Classical Music.” As America’s own true indigenous art form, Jazz is American culture and American history.
Gunther Schuller states, “It can be argued that Jazz and its derivatives have exerted a more powerful, penetrating, worldwide influence than any other music in human history.”
Continually growing and evolving as the most diverse university in the nation, George Mason University’s Jazz program has much to offer its students.
Drawing on the resources of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, students have the opportunity to study with top performers in jazz. No other music puts so much emphasis on the importance of the individual and individual expression. In this light, student performance opportunities include the traditional Big Band, but coupled with a strong emphasis on small groups, improvisation, and personal growth.
“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.
“Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.
“This is triumphant music."
“Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
“It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.
“Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
“And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.
“In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.”
