Regional Oral History Office University of California the Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
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Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Dr. Herbert H. Wong TEACHER, ADMINISTRATOR, AUTHOR, INNOVATOR: A PASSION FOR JAZZ AND SCIENCE EDUCATION Interviews conducted by Caroline Crawford in 1998 Copyright © 2009 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Herbert H. Wong, dated February 1998, and with Peter Apfelbaum, dated August 13, 2007. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Herbert H. Wong, “TEACHER, ADMINISTRATOR, AUTHOR, INNOVATOR: A PASSION FOR JAZZ AND SCIENCE EDUCATION” conducted by Caroline Crawford, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2009. Dr. Herbert H. Wong (Photo courtesy of the Wong family) v Discursive Table of Contents—Dr. Herbert H. Wong Interview History viii Interview #1: Interview 1: February 25, 1998 1 [Tape 1, Side A] 1 Early years in Bay Area, 1926-1934—Great-grandmother, grandparents, great uncles—Lym Young: matriarch and real estate empire-builder. [Tape 1, Side B] 9 Chinese Americans and the Exclusion Act—Triads, Tongs, and the Wong Family—Early memories of parents and a year in Shanghai and Tientsin— Father’s years at Stanford University Medical School—Overseeing the family business. [Tape 2, Side A] 17 Growing up: interests in science and jazz, 1934-1944—A new life in Stockton and the casino business—First exposure to jazz—Memories of Bay Area jazz in the 1930s—Collecting jazz records; race recordings— [Tape 2, Side B] 26 Cal or Stanford?—Getting turned on to the natural environment—First attempts to write “Beatin’ It Out with Herb”—The study of birds—First gigs as a disk jockey—Grandmother’s losses and father’s deaths—Getting drafted and traveling by cattle car to Fort Riley, Kansas, 1944. Interview #2: March 4, 1998 37 [Tape 3, Side A] 37 Studies at the University of California and graduate degrees: 1944-1956— Diverse habitats, vertebrate zoology, and ornithologist Alden Miller— Herpetologist Bob Stebbins and the Elementary School Science Series— Fraternity discrimination and thoughts about Chinese American organizations—Audubon and Donner summer programs—West Coast Nature School, UCSB science courses—John Michaelis and lack of science education at UC—UC elementary school teaching credential—Job discrimination. [Tape 3, Side B] 46 Teaching fifth and sixth grades in Oakland: an interdisciplinary approach—A newspaper route to subsidize school expenses—Science field programs—An vi M.A. in science education from San Jose State University, 1956—Teacher- administrator: more graduate work, 1956-1964—Making waves at Franklin Elementary School: “Herb Wong’s Laundry.” [Tape 4, Side A] 56 Serving as vice-principal at Webster and Santa Fe Schools, East Oakland, 1956-1962—PhD program at UC Berkeley, 1959-1962—“First aid” administrative assignments—Principal at Chabot School—Science fairs and jazz at PTA meetings. [Tape 4, Side B] 64 KJAZ radio station—Hamburger Gus’s—Lester Young (Prez) and Billie Holiday (Lady Day)—KJAZ and commercial support. Interview #3: March 11, 1998 73 [Tape 5, Side A] 73 More about KJAZ: 1959-1996, and Pat Henry and Jerry Dean—KJAZ host of “Jazz Perspectives”—The annual Christmas show and “the Heart of Jazz”— An extraordinary record collection: sixty thousand labels—The fate of KJAZ. [Tape 5, Side B] 82 UC Lab Schools: Washington Elementary School, 1965-1976—Washington School and the National Science Foundation. [Tape 6, Side A] 90 Recruiting teachers: the students and special teachers: Janet Duckart—The jazz education program and Oscar Peterson. [Tape 6, Side B] 95 More about Oscar Peterson—Jazz and more jazz—Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rodney Franklin, and Peter Apfelbaum. Interview #4: March 18, 1998 100 [Tape 7, Side A] 100 “Cleaning house” at Washington School—Creating teaching teams and eliminating “gradedness.” vii [Tape 7, Side B] 108 Phil Hardymon, Dick Hadlock, and Dick Whittington come on board— Creativity fairs and other innovations—Pre-testing and post-testing research— Dave Tucker. [Tape 8, Side A] 114 Afro-Americans, ethnicity, and the auditory process—Composer, pianist, arranger Michael Wolff—Hardymon and Whittington and their teaching programs—Desegregation in the Berkeley schools—An invitation to the Black Panthers—Sadao Watanabe and Phil Woods come to school. [Tape 8, Side B] 122 Maintaining esprit de corps—Effects of desegregation. Interview #5: March 25, 1998 128 [Tape 9, Side A] 128 Spreading the concept of the Washington Environmental Yard, 1983—Ecological initiatives—Marriage and new ventures—Meeting and marrying Marilyn Reese— Writing textbooks for competing publishers—A wedding celebration with Woody Herman and Kenny Burrell [Tape 9, Side B] 134 Peter Apfelbaum enters Washington School—Duke Ellington comes to Berkeley: a grand reception—“We love you madly.” [Tape 10, Side A] 149 Innovative curriculum development using Ellington’s music—More about Duke Ellington’s visit. [Tape 10, Side B] 153 Ellington, continued—Jazz and ornithology—Digging jazz is fun. Interview #6: April 6, 1998 153 [Tape 11, Side A] 153 Highlights of the 1980s and 90s—Teaching at Huxley College of Environmental Studies, Western Washington University and UC Berkeley—New ventures in the Bay Area: BMG and Full Faith and Credit viii [Tape 11, Side B] 159 Establishing Palo Alto Jazz Records: recording Maynard Ferguson, George Howard, Dianne Reeves—Expanding the company and serving as president/V.P—Leaving Palo Alto Jazz and going to Blackhawk Records—Stan Getz’s first CD. [Tape 12, Side A] 167 Kira and Kamberly Wong—A gift from Stan Getz—The Washington Environmental Yard—Natural History of Vacant Lots, 1987—Teaching jazz to adults in Palo Alto—The Jazz Alliance. [Tape 12, Side B] 175 Jazz madness: producing concerts for the Alliance—A music program for Disney World in the 1980s—Pioneering jazz CD-ROMS in the 1990s—For the future: the world’s first music theme park: “Music City, Illinois.” Herb Wong in Conversation with Peter Apfelbaum 183 ix INTERVIEW HISTORY—Herbert H. Wong Ralph Gleason wrote in a 1964 article in the San Francisco Chronicle: “if you don’t think one man can be a group, you don’t know Herb Wong.” Dr. Wong at the time was principal of Chabot Elementary School in Berkeley, an author of several published books on the environment and a leader in science education, a disc jockey on the FM jazz station, KJAZ, and “the most rabid Woody Herman fan outside the Herman family,” according to Gleason, in a reference to Herb Wong’s lifelong passion for jazz that has made him one of the reigning jazz experts in the world. The genesis of the passion was a box of recordings Dr. Wong found at around age 10. Born to a wealthy Chinese family in Oakland in 1926, Dr. Wong is the grandson of a woman who at one time owned most of Jack London Square and reigned over a large and colorful family. Dr. Wong devoted his young years to the study of natural science and eventually jazz, haunting jazz clubs in Stockton and the Bay Area and taking in performances by Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Louis Jordan, Count Basie, and Nat King Cole, among others. In his career as a teacher and administrator in Berkeley and Oakland schools, Dr. Wong established a unique combination of science and jazz in the curriculum by bringing jazz into the elementary classroom, hiring jazz performers to teach everything from gym to kindergarten in order to get them onto the faculty and expose the students to their music. As part of the program Dr. Wong created the Washington Environmental Yard and taught environmental concepts through music. The music program was unique: so well connected was the jazz buff that he could call legendary jazz players—Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson among them—and persuade them to perform in the schools. Dr. Wong joined KJAZ radio in 1959, hosting shows until the station closed down in 1996. Jazz critic, adjudicator, lecturer, record producer (he was president of Palo Alto Records and Black Hawk Records), he has written for Down Beat and Jazz Educators Journal among other publications.