The Generations Jazz Project
Inter-generational mentorship and an international competition
The Generations Jazz Project is an ongoing jazz education program dedicated to helping re-introduce two crucial and inter-dependent building blocks of traditional jazz education into modern music instruction:
- The tradition of intensive, inter-generational mentoring that fueled jazz education and stylistic evolution for decades.
- The importance of the jazz combo as a crucial environment for both jazz mentorship and musical innovation.
Over the past century, remarkable ensembles led by jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley and Art Blakey formed the musical wellsprings where stylistic advances took place and the next generation’s stars received a “trial-by-fire” education, on the bandstand, in the studio and in late-night jam sessions.
As jazz education has gravitated toward the university, however, emphasis has shifted significantly, away from the group dynamic in favor of individual technique. At the same time, much jazz training has moved away from the bandstand and the jam session and into the practice room.
Promoting traditional jazz mentorship
The mission of the Generations Jazz Project is to encourage jazz education’s return to the mentorship model that served it so well for so long. The leaders and artists of the ICA have taken a two-pronged approach to fulfilling this mission:
- the Generations Band, an all-star ensemble of jazz veterans who serve as ambassadors for the project and as mentors to the young ensembles brought into the program.
- the International Competition for Emerging Young Combos, the only international competition for up-and-coming ensembles rather than for individuals. The winning combo of this annual event earns a year-long fellowship at San Francisco State University, including mentorship with the Generations Band.
