Jazz in the Classroom recordings and scores, 1958-1976
Scope and Contents
This collection comprises original 12-inch vinyl recordings of Jazz in the Classroom (15 volumes) and printed scores (11 volumes). Some albums do not have corresponding scores present in the collection. The collection also contains production masters and working copies of the recordings on DAT (31 tapes) and use copies on CD (3 discs) produced as part of the 1997-2005 project by the Stan Getz Library to digitize the collection. Finally, the collection includes 7,430 digital files (80 GB) comprising the digitized recordings and scores produced by Berklee Library and Archives staff.
The original album slipcases contain extensive liner notes, including complete listings of the student composers, arrangers, and performers.
Dates
- Creation: 1958-1976
Creator
- Berklee College of Music (Organization)
- Berklee Press (Publisher, Organization)
- Pomeroy, Herb (1930-2007) (Conceptor, Person)
- Berklee Records (Publisher, Organization)
- Share, Robert, 1928-1984 (Producer, Person)
- Berklee Recording Band (Performer, Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
With the exception of the score from Volume 14 (which is not available) and the unreleased Volume 16, all recordings and scores have been digitized and are available online here
Access to original materials requires special permission from the Associate Director of Berklee Archives, as all material is extremely fragile. Patrons may view an item’s original container and/or carrier, but the original recordings are not available for playback. Additionally, many of the scores are fragile or in poor condition and require careful handling. Advance notice is required for access because materials are stored offsite. Contact Archives staff for further information.
Historical Note
Produced from 1958-1976 by Berklee School (later College) Music faculty member Herb Pomeroy and administrator Robert Share, Jazz in the Classroom was a fifteen-volume series of vinyl recordings and study scores of music composed, arranged, and performed by Berklee students to demonstrate jazz writing and performance techniques and to showcase the outstanding students of the day. Several volumes comprised wholly original compositions by Berklee students, while others paid tribute to jazz giants like Duke Ellington, Benny Golson, or Quincy Jones. Studio sessions were primarily conducted by Pomeroy and recorded by his big band ensemble, later named the Recording Band. The recordings were released on vinyl by Berklee Records and the scores published by Berklee Press, for which Jazz in the Classroom was the inaugural publication.
Dozens of students were featured throughout the series, many of whom would achieve continued recognition in their future professional performance and composition careers, including Toshiko Akiyoshi ‘59, Arif Mardin ‘61, Mike Gibbs ‘63, Gábor Szabó ’59, Gary Burton ‘62, Duško Gojković ‘63, Sadao Watanabe ‘65, Michael Rendish ‘66, Alf Clausen ‘66, Ted Pease ‘66, John Abercrombie ‘67, Alan Broadbent ‘69, Hal Crook ‘71, Abraham Laboriel, Sr., ‘72, Rob Mounsey ‘75, Tiger Okoshi ‘75, Roberta Radley ‘76, and many more. Several Berklee faculty members also contributed arrangements or performed on the recordings, including Dick Johnson, Joe Viola, Jimmy Mosher, Charlie Mariano ’51, and Tony Teixiera.
A sixteenth album was planned but never released.
Jazz in the Classroom was never re-released on modern formats. Between 1997 and 2005, Berklee Library undertook a project to digitize the scores and teh albums from the original studio reels or vinyl releases. The vinyl recordings were initially transferred to DAT and the scores scanned as digital images. The final access product for each volume was an audio CD (available in the Library's circulating collection) as well as an online exhibit that played a digital audio file alongside a Flash-based interactive score.
Flash software was deprecated in 2020; the Archives revamped the digital collection in 2022, including regeneration of some surrogates for improved preservation and access.
Extent
2 Cubic Feet (1 LP record storage box; 1 records carton box; approximately 7,430 digital image and audio surrogates (80 Gigabytes))
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection comprises the original vinyl recordings and printed study scores for the Jazz in the Classroom series produced from 1958-1976. The educational series featured music composed, arranged, and performed by Berklee students to demonstrate jazz writing and performance techniques and to showcase the outstanding students of the day. The fully digitized collection is available online.
Custodial History
This collection was most recently housed by Berklee Library’s Media Development staff (now Content and Media Services) during a project in the late 1990s and early 2000s to digitize the recordings and scores.
The original scores and LPs, production DATs, and reference CDs were transferred to the Archives in 2019, with the exception of the scores that had been scanned from the Library's circulating copies. The digital surrogates were formally received by the Archives in 2022, however surrogates of several scores were regenerated by archives staff for preservation and access. Surrogates from both the 2004-2005 scanning project and the 2022 scanning project were maintained.
Accruals
Production Masters on DAT were discovered among boxes belonging to the former Library Director and added to the collection in 2022.
Digitized Materials
With the exception of the score from Volume 14 (which is not available) and the unreleased Volume 16,, all recordings and scores have been digitized and are available online here
- Title
- Jazz in the Classroom recordings and scores, 1958-1976
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Ashley Gray, with Thomas Wandborg
- Date
- 2022/04/26
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2022-10-20: Revised by Ashley Gray, Processing Archivist, October 2022 to incorporate 2022 accrual
Repository Details
Part of the Berklee Archives Repository