MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Summer school. Not exactly how most kids want to spend their summers, right? But what if that school is the launching pad for the next generation of jazz performers? There's a program like that going on right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Let's go to Montclair, New Jersey. It's got a lot going for it. Leafy, green with a cosmopolitan feel. It's just 18 miles from Manhattan. It's home to artists, educators and professionals looking for a quieter life just outside the city. And in the heart of downtown, you'll find a hub of swinging activity, Jazz House.
LARK VILLINSKI: Jazz House Kids is an amazing program.
ISAIAH J THOMPSON: Just extraordinary musicians of all ages playing on such a high level.
MATTHEW WHITAKER: Jazz House Kids helped shape my career. Without them, you know, I wouldn't be who I am today.
SINCLAIR POWELL: I feel like Jazz House just really helps people in their confidence. And it just builds character.
MARTIN: Those are just a few of the thousands of young people who've been through Jazz House, Lark Villinski, Isaiah J. Thompson, Matthew Whitaker and Sinclair Powell. But what is Jazz House, exactly? According to its founder, Melissa Walker, it's much more than just a music school.
MELISSA WALKER: That ethos of Jazz House Kids is formalized in providing access, learning, career development and community building. We are in under-resourced school districts. We go into schools, and we help either establish a program or we help a program that's in place that wants to expand to jazz. So that might be busing kids from a school where they literally can't get out. Or it's other kids who need an instrument, want an instrument. And they are sitting on the sidelines, and they want to play music.
MARTIN: Melissa Walker's own jazz story was supposed to be very different. As a young woman, she moved from Illinois to New York City with dreams of becoming a singer.
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WALKER: (Singing) The children have so much to give when they are free.
MARTIN: But law school was also on her mind. Then came a call from Newark's jazz public radio station, WBGO. They wanted her to produce a concert for kids.
WALKER: I thought that was fantastic. I'll come and bring my band, and I'll sing, and we'll do a little mini concert. About four days before, I got a call saying, well, you know, we don't just want a concert. We want a program. That sent me into such anxiety. I really had no idea what I was going to do.
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JULIAN LEE: I think I started Jazz House when I was around 14 years old.
MARTIN: Saxophonist Julian Lee was one of its first students.
LEE: Everyone had to help set up the chairs and the drums, and we would have music class. Maybe 20 kids, max. And then the summer camp was held at the Salvation Army.
MARTIN: Melissa Walker, once again.
WALKER: You know, it started to get a little bigger. And things really changed when Christian and I got together.
MARTIN: She's referring to the formidable bassist and her husband, Christian McBride. Julian Lee remembers being astounded when McBride first started showing up.
LEE: You know, in the summer camp, he would play after, you know, an after-lunch concert.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE'S "WHIRLING DERVISH")
LEE: It's like, wow, I was front and center, seeing the best bass player in the world when I was a little kid.
MARTIN: At the end of the two-week summer camp, Christian McBride and Melissa Walker decided to showcase what the students had learned with a concert in a nearby park. Here's McBride.
CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE: Yeah, the very first, you know, quote-unquote "jazz festival," I'm guessing there were probably - I don't know - 45 or 50 kids.
WALKER: We didn't even know to get a permit. We just went to the park and did music.
MCBRIDE: The following year, I think we had, like, 10 more kids.
WALKER: By then, we knew to get a permit.
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MCBRIDE: We invited Monte Alexander to come and be our special guest.
WALKER: And there were about 1,200 people.
MCBRIDE: I think it was then Melissa and I decided that I think we have something here.
WALKER: We've got a festival on our hands.
MCBRIDE: And then we blew it out.
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MARTIN: Each year, as the festival grew, so did its crowds and marquee talent. But more importantly, it was a platform for the students to shine and further spread the word of the Jazz House. Yet, as they continued to enroll more students, Melissa realized something was still missing.
WALKER: There was a student in our program who was very, very talented. Her name is Zoe Obadia. And I was having a conversation with Zoe, and I asked her about her experience at the Jazz House. The very first thing she said is I wish there were more girls in the program.
MCBRIDE: That went to her brain and her heart like an electric shock. She was like, yes, we will absolutely work on that.
WALKER: Who wants to go into something and you're the only one?
(DRUM PLAYING)
WALKER: We created the Chica Power program. And that is for young girls to have a safe space to explore this music.
POWELL: My name is Sinclair Powell. I'm 18 years old, and I play the drums.
MARIELLE EKLUND: My name is Marielle Eklund (ph). I'm 12 years old. I play the trumpet.
POWELL: I had been asking my mom to put me in music for a while. So I was very happy when she put me in Chica Power because I was with people that were older, but I also was doing something that I had been wanting to do for a while.
MARIELLE: It's really cool to be in an environment where there's only girls and jazz.
POWELL: Two really amazing drummers came as guests. And they were so inspiring to me because I hadn't seen any drummers of color and that were women like me.
(DRUM PLAYING)
POWELL: I just feel like if they can do it, I can, too.
WALKER: And I know why young people come back to the Jazz House. This is where they found their footing to be positive, contributing members of society.
(SOUNDBITE OF ISAIAH J THOMPSON'S "THE PROPHET")
MARTIN: That's Melissa Walker, the founder of Jazz House in Montclair, New Jersey. That story was excerpted from a longer profile on the program Jazz Night in America, a production of WBGO Studios and NPR Music. And we'll close with one of the many Jazz House students who've gone on to sign with record labels. Here's Isaiah J. Thompson with "The Prophet."
(SOUNDBITE OF ISAIAH J THOMPSON'S "THE PROPHET") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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