Jazz and Blues Lounge

The Collapse of the IAJE

by balaspa on May 15th, 2008

I was rooting around on the website known as AllBoutJazz.com just looking for a story or something interesting to write about. I came across an article about the collapse and filing for bankruptcy of an organization known as the International Association of Jazz Educators. Apparently this was a significant organization promoting jazz educators across North America. The article is entitled “The IAJE’s Collapse: What Happened?”.

Now, I am not really here to mourn the loss of this organization. I like to think I can follow various events in the jazz world, but until I came across this particular article I had never even heard of the IAJE. This, of course, may be exactly the problem. They were an organization with a goal of promoting jazz music across the country and I had never heard of them. Obviously they weren’t doing something right.

The article indicates that a major mistake seems to have been moving the organization back to Toronto from its location in New York. This reduced the audiences for their various sponsored events by more than half. They also apparently launched several ill-conceived campaigns that never really took off or succeeded on even a basic level.

I find that sort of sad. Jazz can be a very hard sell to people, especially the younger people of today. I know it was for me until I reached college. I think there is a lot of music out there that can be taught to young people and, in particular, aspiring young musicians. An organization that can promote and educate those people would be perfect. It would just be nice to have one that was run correctly.

I don’t exactly have an answer to the problem. The organization has filed for bankruptcy and the assets of the organization have been parceled to a trustee. What will become of the IAJE after that is unknown, but it seems likely to be gone forever. That means one less advocate or group of advocates for an important genre of music.

That’s never a good thing.

Share This

Related Stories

Snow
A Little Change of Scenery

POSTED IN: Bands, Chicago, jazz, records