The goal of the Backcountry Jazz (BCJ) Bridgeport education project is to create a viable music program for children in the public school system from fourth grade through high school. Our work is primarily to support the vision of Tania Kelley, Director of Performing Arts, who joins us in our mission to use the transformative power of music to catalyze change in both individuals and communities. We are working with Tania and partner organizations, including KEYS, a Bridgeport charity that provides free music lessons for deserving students, to create this program.

On June 10, 2010 Backcountry Jazz and Bridgeport students performed the first public

school youth concert with an 11 piece jazz orchestra comprised of some of the finest artists in the business. This included trumpeter Terell Stafford, legendary lead alto saxophonist Jerry Dodgion, pianist Donald Vega, winner of this year’s Great American Jazz Piano Competition, as well as two Juilliard School graduates. Modeled after the tradition of youth concerts produced by symphony orchestras, to our knowledge, this is the first concert of its kind by a jazz orchestra.

Restoration and Sponsorship of discontinued SOARS public school summer music camp

Currently, funding has been cut off for this program by the Bridgeport Public Schools.

Backcountry Jazz would like to re-fund and expand the program to create a larger, more vital jazz presence. This includes training more members off the current faculty, adding jazz musicians to the staff and bringing more BCJ artists to work with the students.

Currently, we are training three public school music teachers in the poly-metric rhythmic

concept, created by Dizzy Gillespie and developed by his long-time pianist, Mike Longo. We plan to train a group of young music students in this system to give them a strong foundation in poly-metric rhythm, before they begin study of a musical instrument. Whatever area of music they pursue, they will approach it with a strong foundation in rhythm. Sonny Rollins once said that, of the three elements of music, rhythm is the most important. Unfortunately, today this is not only the weakest skill of most classical musicians, but of young jazz musicians as well. In addition to musical benefits, we plan to show that this training will also increase concentration levels among young students in other academic areas.

Beginning in the grade school general music program, we are working to establish a jazz

curriculum to teach young students about the relationship of jazz to their own heritage and to the unique experience of the beauty and joy of the music itself. We believe this knowledge will become the catalyst for stimulating an interest in studying instrumental music, with all the benefits and skills this will bring to their future lives.

In the past two years we have produced workshops and concerts for the Bridgeport

summer music program as well as conducted a workshop and open rehearsal as part of our 2009 Dizzy’s Dream event. We plan on continuing this program and to expand it throughout the school year.

Through the generosity of a local Greenwich resident who heard Tania Kelly speak at our

last benefit concert, we were able to initiate a free instrument and private lesson program for dedicated young students. So far, four students have been awarded new instruments. KEYS, the Bridgeport charity, offered to provide free lessons for each recipient. BCJ’s plan is to greatly expand this program. The proven model for this program--the Venezuelan system of music instruction, “Systeme,”--has produced the noted conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, as well as a generation of major orchestra members. It has also been shown to reduce youth drop-out and crime rates in Venezuela.

This is the cornerstone for the success of our broad program. Presently there is no viable

band or jazz band program in the Bridgeport public schools. The creation of such a program is essential to giving young students a goal for their musical aspirations. We are fortunate to have an opportunity through our partnership with Oberlin Conservatory and Iowa University to place talented graduates in these positions. We see this as a musical “VISTA” program. Oberlin already has a tradition of public service with their students, as well as a reputation as one of the finest schools in the country. For Backcountry Jazz, this is a natural fit. 

KEYS has offered to hire these teachers to teach their own students privately, after school to supplement their income and strengthen their band programs. Through our programs, BCJ will provide on-going support, giving students the opportunity to work and interact with our artists. We will use these incentives to attract talented people and help them develop and expand their programs.

Presently we are helping a gifted young student, discovered two years ago at the

Bridgeport MACH after-school program, in his preparation for entrance into a conservatory or university music program. To date we have given him private instruction, coaching in producing his audition recording, and invited him to sit in at select Backcountry Jazz concerts. In the immediate future we hope to give him a scholarship to study with pianist, Mike Longo, in New York.

We expect the entire program to be a five-year sustained effort on the part of Backcountry Jazz to put in place a viable long-term music program in Bridgeport, with the possibility of it being replicated in other disadvantaged communities. We believe the program will change the lives of participants as well as the community in which they live.