Louis Armstrong

The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation has committed nearly $500,000 over the next five years to support a visiting professorship in jazz studies named for the jazz legend at Columbia.

The grant will allow the Center for Jazz Studies to appoint a preeminent scholar in the field of jazz studies to undertake new research in the field and to train the next generation of jazz educators. The Center for Jazz Studies, launched in September, 1999, under the direction of Professor Robert O'Meally, a leading interpreter of the dynamics of jazz in American culture, brings artists and critics, performers and anthropologists, poets and literary scholars together to explore how jazz music, as one of America's greatest art forms, influences the arts, culture, society and politics in the United States and worldwide. Columbia is the first research institution to take this approach to the study of jazz.

"We, at the Louis Armstrong Foundation, believe this Professorship exemplifies the name, spirit and legacy of Louis Armstrong," said David Gold, President of the Foundation. "In the 20th Century, jazz music and Louis Armstrong's performances have had an impact on literature, film, dance, art and politics and have reached people all over the world, filling their leisure time with pleasure."

"We are proud to join Columbia University to further develop scholarly consideration in jazz studies. It is our hope others will join in supporting this significant program at Columbia," added Phoebe Jacobs, vice president of the Foundation.

Professor O'Meally, a literary scholar and editor of the first textbook on jazz studies, Jazz Cadence of American Culture (Columbia University Press: 1999), said the Louis Armstrong Professor of Jazz Studies will be selected from among scholars in the humanities, the arts, or social sciences who have made significant contributions to an understanding of jazz and its influence in history.

"In one year, the Armstrong Visiting Professor may be a writer; in another, an artist or art historian; in the following year, an anthropologist or historian," said O'Meally. "The generosity of the Armstrong Foundation strengthens the Center for Jazz Studies' ability to foster an even greater jazz presence on the Columbia campus and in the neighboring community as well."

The new professor will teach one upper-level undergraduate/graduate seminar each semester in jazz studies, related to his or her research. If the professor is a film historian, for example, he or she might teach a seminar on the representations of jazz in American popular film. A jazz choreographer might host a jazz dance performance.

In addition, the professor will give at least one public lecture or performance during the academic year, intended to draw an engaged audience from the Columbia community and beyond.