The Purpose of The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival
"Jimmie Lunceford has the best of all bands. Duke [Ellington] is great, [Count] Basie is remarkable, but Lunceford tops them both."-- Legendary Swing Band Leader Glenn Miller (Determeyer, 2006)
“The music still sounds good, and it still inspires me, you know. I just think that band had everything. It was just one helluva band.”--Jazz Great Horace Silver (Determeyer, 2006)
"Manassas had the first orchestra of any school in the city with Mr. Lunceford. He was a good disciplinarian, a good teacher, and the students just had a fit over him. Lunceford played sophisticated jazz. I used to practice with them."-- Kathryn Perry Thomas, Beloved Memphis Educator & Manassas High Class of 1932 (JimmieLunceford.com, 2008)
"He would come over to the school each and every time he would play Memphis. His band would perform for the [Manassas] student body, and our band, the Little Rhythm Bombers, would play for him. This is where most of us, as students, saw him. He would bring the big band over to Manassas and perform."
--Memphis Music Great, Educator & Manassas Rhythm Bomber Emerson, Jr. (JimmieLunceford.com, 2008)
The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival is an organization and movement founded by Ronald Cortez Herd II also known as R2C2H2 Tha Artivist in August 2007. The purpose of the Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival (JLJF) is to bring awareness about Jimmie Lunceford and to instill community pride in the achievements and accomplishments of a native Memphian who never forgot Memphis. The JLJF through several initiatives will instill pride in the Memphis City Schools and greater Memphis community by developing a strong advocacy campaign for promoting music education and appreciation in the public schools by building upon the historical model pioneered by jazz great Jimmie Lunceford as well as promoting and documenting the Jimmie Lunceford legacy through collaborative initiatives/projects with Memphis area cultural and educational institutions and the greater Memphis community. . .
Jimmie Lunceford was a true advocate of constructivist theory because becoming knowledgeable involves acquiring the symbolic meaning structures appropriate to one’s society, and, since knowledge is socially constructed, individual members of society may be able to add to or change the general pool of knowledge (Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner, 2007). By voluntarily introducing music education into the Memphis City Schools system and arguably starting the first ever jazz studies program ever taught at a public school in the USA, Jimmie Lunceford did just that in true maverick pioneer style no less. Jimmie Lunceford’s remains are interred at the famous Elmwood Cemetery along with his wonderful legacy. Hopefully in 2013 and many years to come the JLJF plans to change that by initiating a city wide cultural awareness campaign 65 plus years in the making.
In observation of his 110th birthday & and the 65th anniversary of his death (which is actually the calendar year of 2012), the JLJF is planning several events throughout the Memphis area in April, June, July, October & November 2013 to celebrate this unsung hometown hero and music genius. To that end the Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival (JLJF) will be doing collaborations with local arts organizations, educational institutions (the Memphis City Schools, Rhodes College, University of Memphis, LeMoyne Owen College and Christian Brothers University) and grassroots organizations to manifest this reality. The purpose of the JLJF is not only to entertain but to also disseminate to educate to liberate. The JLJF is trying to get more junior and high school band directors aware of the accomplishments of one of their own in order for them to raise the level of expectations of themselves in terms of teaching and leadership as well as of their students in terms of self-awareness (self-esteem) and musicianship.
References
Determeyer, E. (2006). Rhythm Is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford & The Harlem Express. Ann
Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Lodico, M., Spaulding, D., & Voegtle, K. (2010). Methods in educational research: From theory
to practice (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. (2007). Learning in Adulthood: A
Comprehensive Guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
R2C2H2 Tha Artivist. (2011). Jazznocracy At Its Finest: Jimmie Lunceford Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Ceremony. Last page update 7/7/2011. Last retrieved 10/13/2012 from
http://www.jimmielunceford.com/.
***
"The Lunceford Way" Print Signed By 'Tha Artivist' For Only $20...Gets Yours Today!!!
"The Lunceford Way" by r2c2h2 (6/1/2011, 30" x 40" ink pen and whiteout)
"The Lunceford Way" Print Signed By 'Tha Artivist' For Only $20...Gets Yours Today!!!
About "The Lunceford Way"
This
is my tribute to Jazz Legend Jimmie Lunceford who was the first high
school band director and started music education in The Memphis City
Schools back in the 1920s. He was not even hired to be a music
instructor but yet believed in the power of music to change lives and
wanted to share his passions with young people...He took his band,
composed of his best high school students and buddies from Fisk
University, left Memphis and became the house band at the famous Cotton
Club...His orchestra was also the number one attraction at the legendary
Apollo Theatre for a decade and was known as the Harlem Express, the
number one band of choice for African Americans IN THE NATION DURING THE
1930s AND THE 1940s...He Was Known As The King Of The Battle Of The
Bands Because His Orchestra Would Constantly Beat Those Lead By Count
Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller in popularity
contests and cut throat competition...
To learn more about Jimmie Lunceford & The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Please Visit The Following Link:
The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Needs Your Support...Give To Grow The Movement!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10544097+
Or you can mail us a money order:
Attn: Ronald Herd II
"The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival"
P.O. Box 752062
Memphis,TN 38175
