Over a century of innovation, commitment, and fellowship
1921-1963
A student led jazz quintet forms in 1921. By 1924 it’s up to eleven members; 1925 they become very active as the Techtonians playing dances the rest of the decade. MIT hires a professional coach for the ensemble in the mid 1920s lasting a few years. In 1935 the Techtonians tour France. By the end of WWII, they are fifthteen members w/ a vocalist, riding the wave of the big band era (1935-1945) performing fifty gigs a year.
Late 1940s, swing shifts to bebop and students need help navigating this fresh music. By the late 1950s Berklee students Chuck Israels and Arif Mardin (both of whom were
Herb Pomeroy students who on went on to jazz fame) assist the Techtonians. MIT Jazz Society founded by students in 1950s hosting many famous musicians in Kresge concerts, including Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dave Brubeck. In the 1960s Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane also perform in Kresge Auditorium.
Klaus Liepmann (head of MIT music department 1947-1972), believes the Techtonians need professional leadership. In 1963 he asks his friend Dave Brubeck if he would be willing to direct the ensemble. Brubeck would only commit to a once a month visit so the students told Liepmann to hire
Herb Pomeroy, Berklee faculty member and the dominant Boston jazz figure from the 1950s to the 2000s.
1963-1985
Pomeroy leads the Techtonians starting in 1963 and the ensemble’s name is soon changed to the MIT Concert Jazz Band (CJB). Within a few years, the band attends major collegiate jazz competitions, consistently winning top honors. Pomeroy begins a college band invitational festival at MIT and major jazz artists continue to perform in Kresge. He encourages and begins the tradition of student composers from within the ensemble.
1968 Pomeroy invites
Everett Longstreth to lead a second jazz band to accommodate student interest. Longstreth becomes CJB director and Pomeory re-names his ensemble the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (FJE) due to its annual festival participation. In 1970 FJE is one of three collegiate bands invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival, becoming one of the first such ensembles to ever participate.
1971 John Harbison introduces jazz-based methods in a practical harmony course. In 1979 he teaches first course in jazz history.
1981 Mark Harvey becomes instructor of jazz courses, teaching Jazz History and Jazz Harmony & Arranging, later developing new subjects Jazz Composition and Composing for Jazz Orchestra, utilizing both his professional Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and the FJE to perform student works, and he offers revised Musical Improvisation course. Additionally, improvisation workshops and film/improvisation offered during IAP by Harvey as well as jazz lecture-demonstrations for Introduction to Western Music, and other curricular collaborations. Harbison and Harvey invite jazz performers/composers to campus for lectures and concerts.
1985-1999
1985 Pomeroy retires from MIT.
Jamshied Sharifi (a Pomeroy student at both MIT and Berklee) becomes director of FJE. Sharifi continues festival participation and writes much music for the ensemble, producing two FJE professional recordings. Longstreth continues leading the CJB until 1995.
1989 FJE becomes an academic bearing course along with other MIT large ensembles. Michel Camilo is artist-in-residence. 1990
Evan Ziporyn joins faculty and with his interest in jazz and his world-music improvisatory skills, he becomes a frequent collaborator in MIT jazz activities, particularly from 2000 to the present.
Sharifi leaves MIT in 1992 and
Jim O’Dell becomes director of FJE. He begins a N.E. Collegiate Festival at MIT and invites guest artists to perform with FJE. O’Dell continues to foster student compositions and engages area jazz composers to write for FJE, as Pomeroy often did. Harvey teaches jazz seminars for MIT Summer Session. Jazz focused lectures are presented by Harvey, Ed Cohen, and others. Jazz artists-in-residence include Max Roach and Hermeto Pascoal.
1999-2021
1999 Fred Harris becomes Director of Wind and Jazz Ensembles, marking the first time MTA hires a full-time person to lead both jazz and wind ensembles. As such, a shift occurs from MIT having “a jazz ensemble” to having a “jazz program,” by Harris building a performance curriculum and coordinating its integration with jazz courses, artists-in-residence programs, and other educational experiences. Expansion of FJE performance schedule from two concerts per AY to 4-5.
Harris encourages regular combo work within FJE (which continues today) and begins a combo for non-FJE students, which is coached by Boston jazz performers. Seventieth Birthday Celebration of Pomeroy in 2000. Artist-in-residence programs continue annually and flourish; 2001 Keala Kaumeheiwa becomes coach of Jazz Combos under auspices of MIT Chamber Music Society with the support of Marcus Thompson. Harris is administrator, concert facilitator, and advisor for combos. Fortieth anniversary of MIT jazz program founding celebrated in 2003 with the launch of bi-annual Alumni Jazz Band appearances. Release of third FJE CD.
2004-2011
FJE expands collaborations with guest artists, MITWE, other MIT ensembles, poets, dancers, world music artists/ensembles, strings,
Mark Harvey’s jazz courses and Harvey himself, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, and others. FJE regularly commissions new music, and performs (in small and large form) for Institute events and other MIT functions. Don Byron appointed MLK visiting professor. MITWE and FJE members premiere
Mark Harvey’s Beyond (in honor of Duke Ellington) and Kenny Werner’s No Beginning, No End, with Werner, Joe Lovano, and Judi Silvano. Expansion of numbers of Emerson jazz scholars with Harris serving as advisor. Pomeroy’s death in 2007. First annual
Herb Pomeroy Memorial Concert held in 2008. MIT Alumni Jazz Band performs bi-annually at the annual event.
2011 John Harbison founds the MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble (VJE) under auspices of the MIT Chamber Music Society, and he shifts his teaching from chamber music to jazz. Harris supports and assists this program. VJE quickly establishes a stellar reputation and performs w/ Boston Pops and numerous on and off campus special events. FJE and VJE regularly collaborate. Harris shepherds and secures The
Herb Pomeroy Collection, housed at MIT Library Archives (a massive collection of 500 jazz compositions and other important materials). 2012, Harbison founds, w/ assistance from Harris, S.I.N. (Strength in Numbers), MIT’s faculty jazz quintet. S.I.N. performs with students and for numerous MTA and Institute events.
2013 MIT celebrates 50 years of jazz at MIT with a series of special events, culminating with the 50th Anniversary of Jazz concert featuring FJE’s premiere performance of From Forever (Suite for Big Band) by Chick Corea, commissioned for the occasion by the Council for the Arts at MIT. FJE is awarded an unprecedented third Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Award for Achievement in, and Contributions to, the Arts at MIT. A fourth CD is released, a double-disc compilation of live performances including five world premieres.
2015 FJE/MITWE releases Infinite Winds, first recording on a major jazz label featuring all composition composed for the ensembles. The recording garners a “best of 2015” by The Boston Globe and a rare 5-star review by Downbeat Magazine. In 2016, Downbeat chooses the recording as one of its top ten “Masterpieces of 2015,” the first collegiate recording ever to earn this distinction. Combos program expands to three ensembles. Through the advocacy of Harris and support of Marcus Thompson, jazz students begin entering the MIT Advanced Music Performance program.
2016 FJE performs major concert with artist-in-residence Jacob Collier, and subsequent documentary film about the residency receives an Emmy Award and garners over 1 million views. 2017 Laura Grill Jaye becomes director of the MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble. VJE and FJE participate in special events with McDermott winner Audra McDonald and subsequent follow up performance with Jacob Collier in 2018, the largest collaborative concert in MTA’s history. Also in 2018, FJE (and MITWE) perform at The Great Clarinet Summit, with renowned clarinet soloists, culminating with a unique large-scale composition by
Jamshied Sharifi involving community clarinetists of all ages.
FJE tours Puerto Rico in 2019 with saxophonist/composer Miguel Zenón, performing concerts and engaging in STEM/STEAM outreach activities. As the number of outstanding jazz students increase, a Jazz Advanced Music Performance (AMP) class/ensemble is developed and led by Harbison, with assistance from Harris and support from Marcus Thompson. Its focus is original composition and improvisation.
During 2020-2021 despite all the challenges of the pandemic, FJE, Jazz AMP, VJE, and CMS combos, produce multiple LiveStream virtual concerts, all including original compositions and arrangements. Additionally, students participate in numerous seminars and masterclasses by Virtual Visiting Artists Don Byron, Anat Cohen, and Luciana Souza.
2022-2024
In 2022, FJE, VJE, and MITWE members participate in It Must Be Now!, an initiative created in response to the racial reckoning of 2020. It culminates with a multidisciplinary concert featuring new works by composers Terri Lyne Carrington, Braxton Cook, and Sean Jones, and other guest artists including turntablists, vocalists, spoken word artists, a dancer, and the renowned visual artist and filmmaker Mickalene Thomas.
In 2023, FJE, VJE, and MITWE participate in Hearing Amazônia–The Responsibility of Existence which led to all three ensembles—along with guest artists Anat Cohen, Luciana Souza, and
Evan Ziporyn—to travel to the Brazilian Amazon for a cultural/scientific exchange. The tour culminates with a performance in the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus with vocalists and Indigenous activist Djuena Tikuna. This event led to We Are The Forest—Music of Resilience and Activism, a special concert for MIT President Sally Kornbluth’s inauguration.
In the fall of 2023, Puerto Rican alto saxophonist-composer-educator, Miguel Zenón is named Assistant Professor in Jazz, the first such appointment in MIT’s history. He is a Grammy Award-winner (and multi-nominee), and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship, and a Doris Duke Artist Award.
In 2024, The 60th Anniversary of Jazz at MIT is celebrated in a concert featuring all MIT jazz ensembles, the MIT Alumni Jazz Band, Miguel Zenón, Luis Perdomo,
John Harbison, Evan Ziporyn, Keala Kaumeheiwa, Laura Grill Jaye, and Lihi Haruvi.
In the spring of 2024 FJE performs with MIT rap students of MIT MLK visiting professor Wasalu Jaco (professionally known as Lupe Fiasco), MIT and local Hip-Hop dancers, and Fiasco himself, a Grammy Award-winning American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and community advocate.
*** Special thanks to Bill Purves ’65 who contribute to this brief history
