University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1987 Black professional musicians in higher education : a study based on in-depth interviews. Christopher L. Hardin University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Hardin, Christopher L., "Black professional musicians in higher education : a study based on in-depth interviews." (1987). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 4276. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/4276 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY BASED ON IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER L. HARDIN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION February 1987 School of Education Q Copyright by Christopher L. Hardin 1987 A1 1 Rights Reserved BLACK PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY BASED ON IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER L. HARDIN Approved as to style and content by: /'ttfacfr'i /> v Patrick J. Sullivan, Chairman of Committee r Earl Seidman, Member Horace C. Boyer, Member Mario Fanuni) Dean School of Education i i i ABSTRACT BLACK PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY BASED ON IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS FEBRUARY 1987 CHRISTOPHER L. HARDIN, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS M.Ed., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Patrick J. Sullivan This study explores the experience of black profes¬ sional musicians in higher education through in-depth inter¬ views. It was expected that the interviews would reveal im¬ portant differences in the experience of black musicians from other artists in academia. Fourteen participants in the Northeastern United States were interviewed about their double careers as professional musicians and faculty members using the methodology of the in-depth phenomenological in¬ terview. Those interviewed were: Bill Barron, Marion Brown, Jaki Byard, Stanley Cowell, Clyde Criner, Bill Dixon, Natalie Hinderas, Bill Pierce, Hildred Roach, Max Roach, Ar¬ chie Shepp, Hale Smith, Frederick Tillis, and Pearl Wi11iams-Jones. Each interview had three parts, a) the participant’s life before he/she started teaching, b) the participant’s life since he/she has been teaching, and c) what meaning the participant made of the experiences The interviews reconstructed and shared in parts a and b. i v Abstract (continued) averaged four hours, were recorded on audio-tape and tran¬ scribed to print for analysis and discussion. The material from the interviews is first presented as a series of indi¬ vidual profiles in the artists’ own words and, second, as excerpts from the interviews which are included in a discus¬ sion of themes derived from the content of the interviews. The findings include: (1) many black professional musicians were recruited during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and similar positions are no longer available, (2) some musicians are unwilling to curtail their composing, performing, and recording, which is the source of their art¬ istic recognition, in order to teach full-time, (3) many musicians feel that their value to academia has not been recognized, that they are an underused resource, (4) those artists planning to continue teaching were those who accept the full-time demands of the teaching position, although they still see themselves as performers first, (5) most of the participants feel the potential of black music and of black studies in higher education are still unrealized, and 6) the methodology of in-depth interviewing was well suited to the exploratory nature of the study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .. Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY. 1 Conceptual Framework of the Study . E The Design of the Study. 7 Limitations . 7 Presentation and Analysis of the Material ... 14 Definition of Terms.15 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .17 The Artist and Academia.17 Black Studies: A field of inquiry?.27 Black Music in Academia.34 III. METHODOLOGY . 44 Part I - Qualitative Research and the In-Depth Interview . 45 Part II - The Phenomenologica1 Approach .... 51 The Methodology of this study.55 The Interview.35 The Participants.57 Contact and Access.60 Reciprocity.60 . I— 1 Anonymity. Where and When: Appointments. The Written Consent Form.63 Being There: The Process.63 Tape Recording the Interviews.64 Working With the Material: Transcription .... 65 Working with the Material: Analysis . 66 IV. PARTICIPANT PROFILES, JAZZ ARTISTS . 69 Jaki Byard .'I) Max Roach. 94 Bill Dixon .1Q9 Bill Barron.12Q Marion Brown .lg9 Archie Shepp . Stanley Cowell . l55 Bill Pierce. 168 Clyde Criner . v i TABLE OF CONTENTS V. PARTICIPANT PROFILES, CONCERT PIANISTS, COMPOSERS, AND A GOSPEL SINGER/ACCOMPANIST ... 181 Hale Smith.. Natalie Hinderas . 195 Fred Tillis.208 Pearl W i 11 i ams-Jones.221 Hildred Roach . 235 VI. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE MATERIAL.246 Europe and Black Musicians . 246 The Division Between Jazz and Classical Music . 254 Recruitment of Black Musicians . 262 Professional and Financial Considerations . 260 Balancing the Demands of Two Careers.273 Musicians Who Have Found Balance in Academia . 279 Return to the Professional World . 200 Working With Students.202 Black Students.204 Advanced Students . 206 Creating a New Course or Major . 290 Working With Colleagues . 292 Reflections on the Methodology . 300 VII. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 306 APPENDIX.318 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 320 v i i CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Introduction and Statement of the Problem In the late 1960s and early 1970s, black professional musicians and other black artists were recruited for posi¬ tions at predominantly white colleges and universities. This study is about those professional musicians who began teaching at that time in departments of music or in Black, or Afro-American, Studies departments. They were brought onto the faculty because of their experience, and because they were blacks one could not be separated from the other. Some had the usually required academic qualifications for college teachings many had little or no academic qualifica tions. All had considerable abilities in composition, per¬ formance, and recording. Their experience is valuable to this study for an understanding.of what that time was like, how these artists saw their contribution to higher educa¬ tion, and how teaching positions have changed for these art¬ ists today. This study explores their experience and the meaning they make of that experience through in-depth inter¬ views with the participants, presents this material as indi¬ vidual profiles of the artists in their own words, and dis¬ cusses the material in the interviews, using direct quota¬ tions, with regard to themes introduced by the participants 1 2 Conceptual Framework of the Study We are at the end of an era of openness and progress in education for and about black Americans. Enrollments of black students were at their highest in 1978 and are now dropping, and the concentration of black enrollment has shifted so that the greater percentage of black students are now at white institutions.3- One of the developments since the late 1960s which is a concern of this study is the great progress made in the academic teaching of jazz and other forms of black music. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, many black professional musicians were invited to teach at colleges and universities, usually through either a part- time or full-time position. There was also a corresponding trend which included hiring in other areas of black culture such as theater, dance, and the visual arts. The new musician/teachers were hired for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that they were black. Just as lmpor- 3. Black students accounted tor 10.4 percent of all students enrolled in 1978. In 1984 they made up 9.2 percent though blacks were still 13 percent of the nation’s 18-to-24-year- oId population. In 1960, there were 170,000 black students with 65 percent enrolled in black colleges. In 1 , 500,000 black students with 35 percent enrolled in black colleges. By the early 1980’s, of 1.1 million black stu dents, only 25 percent were in black colleges. in enrollments to white colleges does not mean that the are more students graduating. The latest flares show that See 50 percent of black graduates are from black <=°lle(3 New York "Lower Black Enrollments," Education Life section, Times, August 3, 1986, p. 12. 3 tantly, they were thoroughly experienced in the subject, they were well known as musicians, and they were qualified by their experience, if not by teaching credentials, to teach the subject matter. This promising development in American education—from both the perspective of the hiring of greater numbers of black faculty and the perspective of the artist in academia—has now come to an end. American colleges and universities in the mid 1980s have different needs and dif¬ ferent concerns than they did in the late 1960s. Black Studies departments, programs, and courses are established on many campuses. Most of the black and white students who now come to take these courses accept them as a part of the curriculum and are unaware of the travail of those whose en¬ ergy established these offerings. Jazz music has become a part of the music department curriculum not only at the col¬ lege level, but at the high school level as well.1"' Hiring practices have also changed to where the black musicians hired into full-time positions today have academic as well as professional credentials.