Jazz in the Classroom recordings and scores, 1958-1976

Produced from 1958-1976 by Berklee School (later College) Music faculty member Herb Pomeroy and administrator Robert Share, Jazz in the Classroom was a fifteen-volume series of vinyl recordings and study scores of music composed, arranged, and performed by Berklee students to demonstrate jazz writing and performance techniques and to showcase the outstanding students of the day. Several volumes comprised wholly original compositions by Berklee students, while others paid tribute to jazz giants like Duke Ellington, Benny Golson, or Quincy Jones. Studio sessions were primarily conducted by Pomeroy and recorded by his big band ensemble, later named the Recording Band. The recordings were released on vinyl by Berklee Records and the scores published by Berklee Press, for which Jazz in the Classroom was the inaugural publication.

Dozens of students were featured throughout the series, many of whom would achieve continued recognition in their future professional performance and composition careers, including Toshiko Akiyoshi ‘59, Arif Mardin ‘61, Mike Gibbs ‘63, Gábor Szabó ’59, Gary Burton ‘62, Duško Gojković ‘63, Sadao Watanabe ‘65, Michael Rendish ‘66, Alf Clausen ‘66, Ted Pease ‘66, John Abercrombie ‘67, Alan Broadbent ‘69, Hal Crook ‘71, Abraham Laboriel, Sr., ‘72, Rob Mounsey ‘75, Tiger Okoshi ‘75, Roberta Radley ‘76, and many more. Several Berklee faculty members also contributed arrangements or performed on the recordings, including Dick Johnson, Joe Viola, Jimmy Mosher, Charlie Mariano ’51, and Tony Teixiera.

A sixteenth album was planned but never released.

Jazz in the Classroom was never re-released on modern formats. Between 1997 and 2005, Berklee Library undertook a project to digitize the scores and teh albums from the original studio reels or vinyl releases. The vinyl recordings were initially transferred to DAT and the scores scanned as digital images. The final access product for each volume was an audio CD (available in the Library's circulating collection) as well as an online exhibit that played a digital audio file alongside a Flash-based interactive score.

Flash software was deprecated in 2020; the Archives revamped the digital collection in 2022, including regeneration of some surrogates for improved preservation and access.