There is an explosion of jazz at Juilliard this month. An ambitious set of performances and a truly historic conversation with one of jazz's prime movers cumulatively show that not only is jazz alive, but it is thriving within the walls of this particular institution.

It Ain't Got That Swing? It Don't Matter!

Portrait of Stan Kenton, 1947-48. Photo © William P. Gottlieb, from the Library of Congress Collection

Stan Kenton's music has long been both extremely popular in certain segments of the jazz world, and quite controversial in others. Some state that it rarely swung—and for a music whose motto is "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," this is anathema. There are those who relished the sheer sonic weight and lack of ambiguity in the music Kenton's band played. To others, it was too bombastic, with Kenton becoming a sort of jazz version of Richard Wagner. But these sort of analogies do an injustice to both parties. In the two decades since his passing in 1979, it has become clear that Kenton strove above all for an original voice in American music and was clearly willing to risk quite a bit of his commercial cachet in his search for self-expression. But even those on both sides of the Kenton controversies agree that his bands of the 1950s were among his very best—and it is that oeuvre that the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra will be digging into this month, with its concert on February 27 in the Juilliard Theater.

You may remember that, just a couple of months back, the orchestra presented an evening of Latin jazz. This program serves as a natural follow-up to that one, since Stan Kenton followed Dizzy Gillespie's lead in the 1940s and dedicated quite a bit of effort to integrating the essence of Latin music into his band. Among the treasures the band will be displaying are the Johnny Richards arrangements that Kenton featured on his Cuban Fire recording back in the mid-50s. They call for a tremendous amount of virtuosity from the orchestra, and are rarely attempted in person. There was an insularity to the way Kenton's band sounded over the years, and it will be revelation to hear how his music will sound at the hands of the young players who comprise the Jazz Orchestra, who bring a whole new world of experience to these classic scores.

Conversation With a Giant

Imagine that you were at a conservatory at a time when interviews (not séances) with Mahler, Mozart, or Messiaen were being offered. Wouldn't you be the first in line? On February 3, Juilliard hosts a conversation with a man who has an analogous position in the evolution of jazz: percussionist/bandleader/composer Max Roach. It is no exaggeration to say that jazz drumming can be grouped as pre- or post-Roach. He created a language that used the military-styled rudiments only as a frame of reference for an intensely personal style that broke up jazz rhythms in a startlingly new fashion, both in solos and in accompaniment. The series of recordings that Max Roach made as Charlie Parker's drummer in the mid-1940s remain—along with Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens and only a handful of others—the prime exponents of a new jazz language that influenced everything that followed it. From the early 1950s on, Roach led a series of brilliant bands that featured trumpeters Clifford Brown and Booker Little, the saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Odean Pope (just to name a few), all of whom had their own unique sound. Before Dave Brubeck's big hit with Take 5, Roach was a pioneer in making time signatures other than 4/4 swing. He also experimented with the integration of the tympani into his drum set to great effect on Thelonious Monk's 1956 recording of Bemsha Swing, but these examples are truly the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Conversations in Jazz: Max Roach Morse Hall Monday, Feb. 3, 7 p.m. Music for Jazz Trombone Choir Paul Hall Wednesday, Feb. 5, 8 p.m. Juilliard Jazz Orchestra at Birdland 315 W. 44th St. Wednesday, Feb. 19, 9 and 11 p.m. Juilliard Jazz Orchestra: Music of Stan Kenton Juilliard Theater Thursday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m. For ticket information, please see the calendar.

Throughout his long career, Roach eschewed the bombastic territory that was the province of most drummer-bandleaders. In the best sense of the term, he is a serious musician—serious enough to have fun with it. Max Roach was also a prime mover, along with Charles Mingus, in the introduction of a strong social conscience, no longer on the back burner, but way up front. Recordings such as Freedom Now and We Insist! were a vital part of the struggle for racial equality that served as musical analogues to the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Never one to be defined by a pre-existing model, Roach branched out in subsequent decades, collaborating with artists in many different genres, including author Toni Morrison and dancer Bill T. Jones. He has composed for string quartets and films; lectured and taught internationally; created his percussion ensemble M'Boom (their repertoire would make for a fascinating evening for a Juilliard Percussion ensemble); played duets with a wide range of partners, which have included Dizzy Gillespie and Cecil Taylor; and perfected a series of unaccompanied drum solos dedicated to his mentors, including Big Sid Catlett and Jo Jones. He has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, granted Honorary Membership in the Academy of Arts and Letters, and named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, the country's highest cultural honor. Don't miss this opportunity to spend time in the company of a true American giant.

Sliding Into Front Stage

Years ago, a composition teacher told me that he considered the French horns the roving outfielders of orchestration. In the jazz orchestra, the trombones have a similar function, spending as much time (if not more) blended in with the trumpets or the reeds as on their own. This situation will be at least partially rectified when the Juilliard Jazz Ensembles feature music for jazz trombone choir on February 5. Under the leadership of the internationally renowned soloist and composer Wycliffe Gordon (with Slide Hampton as guest artist), they will present a program of new compositions and arrangements written expressively for them.

And if the trombone section didn't already have enough to do this month, they will play along with the rest of the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, which will be demonstrating its versatility in its debut appearance at one of New York's premiere jazz clubs—Birdland (named after Charlie "Bird" Parker)—on February 19.

Juilliard may have taken its time in coming to terms with jazz—but if this month is any indication of what's in store, it is more than making up for lost time!

Loren Schoenberg, who teaches jazz history, has been on the faculty since 2001.