Jazz Goes to College: Has Academic Status Served the Art?

This paper recounts the history of jazz music in the United States and its passage from despised, marginal entertainment to the solid respect conferred by academe. The author asserts that such respect has little to do with music and a great deal to do with class, race, jobs, and money. The first extracurricular college jazz band at North Texas State College in 1947 has since moved to tenured chairs in music departments. The author and other researchers caution that the very vibrancy of jazz may be swaddled inside the velvet cage of academic music which may threaten its very existence. (EH)