CCBC Catonsville Prepares to "Jazz Up" the Curriculum with New Program

CCBC Catonsville is planning to add a unique curriculum to its Music program -- Jazz Education. Scheduled to begin in Fall 2003, this is believed to be the only program of its kind among community colleges.

The Jazz Education program will come to life via a two-plus-two articulation agreement with Sojourner-Douglass College, a historically black college located in Baltimore City. As part of the Jazz Education curriculum, students will take fundamental Jazz Education classes at CCBC Catonsville and then transfer to Sojourner-Douglass College to complete their bachelor's degrees. Students will take classes in Jazz Theory, Jazz Improvisation, History and Literature of Jazz, the Recording and Business Industry of Music and private lessons on their principal instrument. In addition to the program, CCBC Catonsville will house the new Center for the Preservation of Baltimore Jazz. The center will include information on Baltimore's rich jazz history.

To notify the public of ongoing efforts and to raise money for the Center for the Preservation of Baltimore Jazz, CCBC, the Catonsville Community College Foundation and Sojourner-Douglass College hosted a special jazz concert in October featuring the Cyrus Chestnut Trio. Prior to the concert, a "Meet the Artist" reception featured the Gwynns Falls Elementary School Jazz Band.

Additional efforts to preserve Baltimore jazz have been hosted by CCBC Catonsville. One of the larger events included a special jazz concert featuring Ruby Glover that raised nearly $20,000 to support the campus' technology efforts. Two smaller social gatherings brought hundreds of dollars into the Catonsville Community College Foundation jazz fund.

The Jazz Education program is the project of an advisory committee comprised of various CCBC representatives and community members. The purpose of the committee is to guide the development of the Jazz Center and to advise in the writing of the curriculum.

CCBC Catonsville Music Professor Willis Keeling welcomes this new initiative. "When I was in school, we didn't have the opportunity to study jazz in this way," said Keeling. "It has just been in recent decades that the educational arena has given jazz the recognition it deserves. I'm very excited to be able to contribute to this project as a music educator."