Remapping Jazz Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Schools—Normal School Jazz: 1920s to the 1940s

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Musicking Normal Schools: Soundings of Capital, Gender, Race in Past, Current, Futures of Teacher Education

Abstract

In this presentation I will recontextualizes early jazz-education history by arguing the overlooked contributions of American normal schools. While traditional narratives typically emphasize formal jazz curricula emerging in the mid-1940s at institutions such as the Schillinger House (now Berklee) and North Texas State Teachers College, I reveal a deeper and more dispersed lineage. Through archival research, the study locates early jazz ensembles at teacher-training institutions, many of which have since evolved into public universities.
The genesis of this investigation lies in a 2007 historical research seminar, where I encountered a 1923 photograph of the “Ragadour Jazz Orchestra” at Northern Arizona Normal School. This student-led jazz group, directed by violinist and junior Arliss Miller, challenges prevailing assumptions about both the timeline and demographics of early jazz education. Further examination of institutional archives and yearbooks across several normal schools—including Kent State Normal College (OH), Louisiana State Normal School (LA), and Valley City State Normal School (ND)—revealed a broader pattern of student- and faculty-led jazz ensembles active from the 1920s through the early 1940s.
These groups performed at social events, local dances, and campus functions, occasionally broadcasting on radio, and often comprised both men and women. Notably, several early ensembles were directed by women, suggesting that gender inclusion in jazz performance and leadership was more common than previously acknowledged. By the 1930s, however, ensembles appear to have become exclusively male, reflecting broader social and institutional patriarchy.
I discovered that from 1917 to 1946 there was a critical but underexamined era of “early jazz education,” marked by informal yet structured learning environments. These settings fostered jazz musicianship outside the urban centers and commercial circuits typically privileged in jazz historiography. Normal schools in both rural and urban regions provided foundational music instruction as part of broader teacher-education curricula. Jazz education, in this context, was neither peripheral nor novel—it was embedded in community life and teacher preparation.
Methodologically, the study draws upon a diverse array of sources, including institutional yearbooks, local newspapers, university archives, and historical texts. These materials illuminate how ensembles functioned, who participated, and the cultural value attributed to their performances. The paper also raises pertinent questions about repertoire, pedagogy, and transmission of jazz knowledge during this period, many of which remain unanswered due to gaps in documentation.
I conclude that early jazz education was far more inclusive and decentralized than the prevailing narrative suggests. The presence of jazz ensembles in normal schools broadens the geographic, racial, and gendered map of jazz history and challenges assumptions about when and where formal jazz education began. This remapping of the field invites further scholarly attention to the local, informal, and often-overlooked spaces where jazz was taught, learned, and lived.

Author

• Keith Brenden Kelly, Arizona State University