The Jazzschool at California Jazz Conservatory is a community music school and former

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

conservatory in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. It was the only independent music conservatory in the United States devoted solely to jazz and related styles of music. Located in the Downtown Berkeley Arts District, the CJC offered Associate, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees in Jazz Studies. The conservatory also offers community education classes and workshops for instrumentalists and vocalists and precollege youth programs for beginning, intermediate and advanced musicians. In July 2024, the conservatory announced that it would end its degree programs due to "significantly decreased enrollment and financial constraints." The degree programs ended after the fall 2024 semester, but community music programs continue under the name Jazzschool.

History

The California Jazz Conservatory was founded in 1997 as "Jazzschool" by Susan Muscarella, a jazz pianist who studied with

Wilbert Baranco Wilbert Baranco (15 April 1909 – October 1983) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Baranco played with Curtis Mosby in the early 1930s and then put together his own bands in the 1930s and 1940s, including several military bands during ...

in the 1970s, joined a band, and released a solo album called ''Rainflowers'' in 1979. She first taught at then became the director of the

Jazz Ensembles Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, m ...

program at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In 1989 she left the Cal music department for private teaching and professional performance, playing at various times with

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...

Sheila E. Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957), known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians of her generation; she is known for skills as a multi-instrumental ...

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland Order of the British Empire, OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire, . PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English and American jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She was the host of ...

Marlena Shaw Marlina Burgess (September 22, 1939 – January 19, 2024), professionally known by her stage name Marlena Shaw, was an American singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and continued to perform until her death. Her music has often been ...

and

Arturo Sandoval Arturo Sandoval (born November 6, 1949) is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 ...

. In 1997 Muscarella bought an old 1880s residence at 2377 Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley to house the school and a connected cafe called La Note, the latter run by her neighbor, environment designer Dororthée Mitrani-Bell. The California Jazz Conservatory enrolled about 130–150 students in its first quarter, taught by some 25 local jazz musicians and educators. By 2001 the school enrolled 600 students each quarter. The street-level La Note space was used by the California Jazz Conservatory after hours as a classroom and performance space seating 60. Kressberkeley

In 2002 to suit its expansion the school moved to larger accommodations a few blocks away at 2087 Addison Street, leaving the cafe to operate separately. The new location—the basement of the historic S. H. Kress & Co. retail store in the middle of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District—was rebuilt to contain 12 rehearsal rooms, 14 classrooms, a 60-seat concert space and a snack shop called Jazzcaffé. The performance space was named Hardymon Hall to memorialize Berkeley High School's dynamic jazz educator Phil Hardymon who founded the Berkeley Jazz Project in 1975 for high school students. In January 2002 the inaugural performance in Hardymon Hall featured singer

Madeline Eastman Madeline Louise Eastman (born June 27, 1954) is an American jazz singer. At 18, while watching the movie '' Lady Sings the Blues'' Eastman became enchanted with Diana Ross's portrayal of vocalist Billie Holiday. Not yet realizing how serious an ...

backed by pianist Frank Martin, bassist Peter Barshay and drummer

Vince Lateano Vince Lateano (born 1942) is an American jazz drummer who has toured with numerous jazz musicians over the years, including Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, Vince Guaraldi, and Stan Getz. Lateano was born in Sacramento, California in 1942, and was in ...

. In 2009, the "Jazzschool Institute" began operating under the "Jazzschool" umbrella. The Jazzschool Institute was a four-year music conservatory offering a Bachelor of Music degree to vocalists and instrumentalists. The Jazzschool Institute was superseded by the California Jazz Conservatory in late February 2014. Susan Muscarella stepped down as president in November 2023 and was replaced by music producer Nick Phillips the next month. In July 2024, the conservatory announced that it would end its degree programs due to "significantly decreased enrollment and financial constraints." The degree programs ended after the fall 2024 semester, but community music programs continue under the name Jazzschool.

Faculty

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

musicians who have taught at the California Jazz Conservatory include pianist

Taylor Eigsti Taylor Eigsti (born September 24, 1984) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Eigsti's trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland. He is also a member of Eric Harland Voyager, Kendrick Scott Oracle, and Gretchen Parlato ...

, vocalist Kim Nalley, violinist and violist

Mads Tolling Mads Tolling (born July 5, 1980) is a Danish-American violinist, violist, composer and two-time Grammy Award-Winner. As a former member of the Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke’s band, Tolling is today leading his own projects ...

, singer Madeline Eastman, violinist and arranger Jeremy Cohen of

Quartet San Francisco Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, s ...

, percussionist John Santos of the Machete Ensemble, singer Joe Bagale of Jazz Mafia, percussionist and vocalist Edgardo Cambón of

Candela The candela (symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radi ...

, flugelhornist

Dmitri Matheny Dmitri Matheny (born December 25, 1965) is an American jazz flugelhornist. According to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', Matheny is "one of the jazz world's most talented horn players." Early career Matheny was raised in Columbus, Georgia, and T ...

, saxophonist

Anton Schwartz Anton Schwartz (born July 16, 1967) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer based in Seattle, Washington and Oakland, California. Biography Anton Schwartz was born and raised in New York City, the son of Tony Schwartz, the audio documenta ...

, singer Kellye Gray, saxophonist

Michael Zilber Michael Zilber is a Canadian composer and musician. Zilber was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in his late teens and to New York City in his early twenties. He has performed and/or recorded ...

, pianist

Mark Levine Mark Andrew LeVine is an American historian, musician, writer, and professor. He is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Education LeVine received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter ...

, horn player Ellen Seeling of

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

, and guitarist Mimi Fox.

Scholarship

California Jazz Conservatory students were awarded scholarships such as the Mark Murphy Vocal Jazz Scholarship first given in 2009. Other established endowments included the Jamey Aebersold Scholarship and the William E. Robinson Scholarship. About 15% of the students were assisted financially with a scholarship. In 2012 the Eddie Marshall Scholarship Fund was initiated to memorialize longtime faculty member Eddie Marshall, a drummer who worked at the

Keystone Korner The Keystone Korner was a jazz club in the North Beach, San Francisco, North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California, which opened in 1970 and continued operation until 1983. Many live recordings were made at the club. In the 1970s, Jessi ...

jazz club in San Francisco's North Beach where he played behind jazz greats such as

Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" an ...

Stan Getz Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...

and

Bobby Hutcherson Robert Hutcherson (January 27, 1941 – August 15, 2016) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. "Little B's Poem", from the 1966 Blue Note Records, Blue Note album ''Components (album), Components'', is one of his best-known composi ...

Notable students

Jazz poet laureate

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his Satire, satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known wor ...

enrolled in 1998 at the age of 60 to learn jazz piano. He studied under Muscarella through 2004, and inspired a class for teaching poetry composition intended for music. After his "Jazzschool" term, Reed continued to work with pianist Mary Watkins, and in 2007 as the Ishmael Reed Quintet he produced his debut album called ''For All We Know'' on which he leads the band and plays piano.

References

External links

California Jazz Conservatory official website
{{Coord, 37.8712, -122.2689, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Education in Berkeley, California Educational institutions established in 1997 Music schools in California Schools in Alameda County, California Jazz music education 1997 establishments in California