Jazz is the American World Music Genre, and many jazz legends, including Art Blakey, Billy Eckstein, Billy Strayhorn, Errol Garner, and Lena Horne, had their beginnings in Pittsburgh. In the mid-1960's the Local Musicians Unions #471 located in the East Liberty region of Pittsburgh PA, had provided a facility for professional musicians to develop the musical potential of young African American students within the greater Pittsburgh community.
Forced to integrate with Local #60, located downtown Pittsburgh, the East Liberty facility would no longer be able to serve the need of those students. Realizing the long-term affect this would have on Black students, after the integration, the Black Musicians Union (BMOP) was formed what is commonly known today as the Jazz Workshop, Inc.
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Jazz is the American World Music Genre, and many jazz legends, including Art Blakey, Billy Eckstein, Billy Strayhorn, Errol Garner, and Lena Horne, had their beginnings in Pittsburgh. In the mid-1960's the Local Musicians Unions #471 located in the East Liberty region of Pittsburgh PA, had provided a facility for professional musicians to develop the musical potential of young African American students within the greater Pittsburgh community.
Forced to integrate with Local #60, located downtown Pittsburgh, the East Liberty facility would no longer be able to serve the need of those students. Realizing the long-term affect this would have on Black students, after the integration, the Black Musicians Union (BMOP) was formed what is commonly known today as the Jazz Workshop, Inc.
Founded by jazz musician, Harold Young, in 1973 the Jazz Workshop, Inc., was established with a significant mission in mind: to “keep jazz alive” during a period when schools were lacking in what he viewed as “authentic” music education programs for inner city children. He approached Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library, requesting the use of space at its Homewood site, with the idea of using their space, where rooms are suitable for classes and the auditorium could serve as a performance space.
He encouraged local African American musicians, of notoriety to join him in teaching jazz to all American youngsters. As the children mastered their talents, they gained a sense of pride in acquiring a skill, originated through the American diaspora that had become so deeply rooted in the American tradition of greatness. First there were eight children who came to library each Saturday, now there are hundreds.
Through the years, the Jazz Workshop Inc., under the directorship of Mr. Harold Wallace Young, has become an award winning music arts organization, and received various Society, State, and Municipal citations, recognition, and proclamation awards, such as: African American Jazz Preservation Society, Federal Executive Board, Keepers of the Flame award from the Legacy Arts Project, Proclamation from the Wilkinsburg Borough Council, House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and many others...
Housed at the Carnegie Library over 40 years, with a satellite site in Wilkinsburg, PA, the Jazz Workshop Inc. continues to grow in student population and diversity. The young and mature enjoy the personal satisfaction of learning a new skill and mastering an art form within the proud history of the American World Music genre ~ Jazz, where lessons are moderately priced.
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Jazz Workshop, Inc.
