One of the few women-only college level jazz programs is coming to an end. The jazz program at Spelman College, a historically black institution for women, got its start in 1983. It was founded by saxophone player Joe Jennings who in a stewardship spanning thirty years earned the program national esteem. The Spelman College Jazz Ensemble played at prestigious venues and jazz festivals, produced CD's regularly, and served as ambassadors for the college, fundraising among alumni.
Jennings retirement in 2013 seems to have been the beginning of the end for the program. His replacement didn't live up to expectations and rather than find a new leader the program was quietly phased out at the end of the last academic year.
Jennings acknowledged in an interview with NPR that their were financial factors involved in the decision as many colleges tighten their arts and humanities budget. "With the cost of Spelman,"he said, "most African-American families were not going to send their daughters to college to study jazz." But there is also a bias at work within music departments at black institutions which leaves jazz on the margins as European classical music is favored. A legacy that some trace back as far as the promotional success of choral groups such as the Fisk Univ
