Great Music Awaits on the MIT Jazz Timeline

The History of Jazz at MIT offers cool music clips and a sketch of history in an interactive timeline. While MIT’s jazz history dates to the 1920s, the arrival in 1963 of Herb Pomeroy, a talented performer and teacher, transformed scattered efforts into a focused jazz program. Pomeroy, who retired in 1985, led the Festival Jazz Ensemble to national prominence with participation at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and other festivals.

Pomeroy’s legacy, celebrated this year, continues today with an active—and innovative—jazz program on campus. “We are not just playing standards, we are playing new, innovative music and breaking new ground,” says Ali Azarbayejani ’88, trumpet.

Here are a few highlights on this interactive timeline created for the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

1955: MIT Jazz Society is founded and quickly hosts a Stan Getz concert on campus.

Paul Padget ’58 recalls Getz originally turned down the offer to play at MIT. Then he heard about the fabulous acoustics at the newly opened Kresge Auditorium—and he called MIT.

“We had about four days’ notice and we were on the phone to everyone. We had volunteers sitting up nights creating posters that were hand-lettered because we were so short of time and money. But the concert was standing room only, and the MIT Jazz Society became established."

1976: Hear Herb Pomeroy direct “Paper Dragon” by Rob Mounsey, featuring Paul Bangser '77 on guitar.

1990: Hear a sample from a recording project initiated by Jamshied Sharifi '83, that produced the first of two acclaimed CDs by the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble.

2001: Rajesh Mehta '86 and Paul Lovens premiere a new work by Mark Harvey composed for them and Aardvark.

 2013: When jazz great Chick Corea agreed to compose a work for the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble’s 50th birthday this year, it was a salute, in part, to his own MIT experience. As a Chelsea high school junior, Corea came to campus to play played trumpet and piano in one of his first bands—a jazz sextet that he formed with musicians including Joel Karp ’62 and Rich Orr ’62, SM ’63, EE ’69, PhD ’73 trombones, and graduate student Roger Eiss PhD ’67, on trumpet and bass. Corea dedicated the piece to Pomeroy, who offered Corea his first professional club date as the opening act for Pomeroy’s band in a Boston club.

Visit the Jazz timeline, read about the teaching history in Illuminating Passion: 50 Years of Jazz at MIT, and visit the Listening Room’s jazz section for more music.