Homewood Jazz Workshop, Inc. article in Post Gazette

by Dr. Nelson Harrison

Feb 6

Wed, Feb 5 at 5:34 PM
 

For one of Pittsburgh’s Iconic Black-Owned Jazz Organizations, Change is a Familiar Tune

Dr. Jacqueline “Jaki” Young still remembers the flamboyant personalities that accentuated her first lessons 
as a 19-year-old student at The Jazz Workshop, Inc., in Homewood, which her father, Harold Young, founded in 1973.
Ed Anderson, a guitarist, knew so much about music that “he could talk to you for days,” she said.
Abdul Karmin was a mentor, as he played the saxophone, the same instrument that Dr. Young, 
her father and her grandfather played.
Kenny Fisher, another saxophonist, was “dynamite” and became a staple at the school for more than 40 years.
Dr. Young recalled how DeRuyter “Ducky” Kemp, a piano instructor, jovially advised her to play her staccato notes, 
the short ones that require extra concentration — like she was walking on eggshells. 
“He was smiling the whole time,” she said. “It was such a warm environment. “I felt so embraced.”
Dr. Young, who took over as the Jazz Workshop’s director when her father died in 2014, still feels like she has “big shoes to fill.” 
Harold Young, a Veterans Affairs worker by day, was a pioneer in Pittsburgh’s jazz scene 
who wanted to pass his love of music on to the next generation.
“I would say my father was a visionary,” she said. “He was very humble, and it was never about him. ” 
“He cared about the kids incessantly, and especially the underserved kids in the neighborhood.”
AN OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY
Pittsburgh’s jazz scene was much different during Harold Young’s heyday when Jaki was a child.
The burgeoning city was a central conductor of the so-called “Chitlin’ Circuit,” 
a segregation-era ring of performance venues for black musicians and entertainers.
Dr. Young said she saw a wide range of locally and nationally renowned artists at one of Pittsburgh’s prime jazz clubs, 
the Crawford Grill in the Hill District — including the “notorious” Eddie Jefferson, 
who set words to instrumental solos in a technique known as “vocalese.”
She also spent time with famous saxophonist Stanley Turrentine — her father’s childhood friend,
 and Nelson Harrison, a “historian” of the Pittsburgh jazz scene who played with the Count Basie Orchestra.
During that era, the Black Musicians Union, Local 471, existed separately from the white musicians union, Local 60. 
When the two unions merged following the Civil Rights Act of 1965, 
Harold Young became concerned that white musicians would get preferential treatment, 
so he started teaching aspiring young Black jazz musicians at the Homewood Branch of the Carnegie Library.
From its onset, the Jazz Workshop catered to all kinds of instruments and assembled a big band that performed at local schools, 
events and concert venues such as the Three Rivers Arts Festival and Westinghouse Park in Homewood. 
Dr. Young used her practice time back then to hone her skills as a sax player for the 
University of Pittsburgh’s Jazz Band, whose director, Nathan Davis, 
helped to secure additional funding for the workshop through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
More than half a century later, Dr. Young is continuing her father’s legacy, even as the popularity of jazz has diminished.
"While popular modern genres like rap and R&B have their roots in jazz and frequently sample classic records, 
one of the biggest problems facing jazz today is that children spend less and 
less time around physical instruments and are no longer familiar with them," said Dr. Young.
"When the Jazz Workshop held a small concert last spring, a middle school-aged girl walked up 
to one of the guitarists and asked him what instrument he was playing," she said.
“I’ve seen it,” she said. “They don’t even know, let alone have an opportunity to play.”
GIVING CHILDREN A SENSE OF CONNECTION
Even as jazz became less popular, The Jazz Workshop had enough paying students to 
continue offering regularly scheduled lessons at the Homewood Carnegie Library.
The workshop had 25 students taking lessons at its peak. They paid up to $12 per lesson, 
but students with special needs sometimes received scholarships from social services programs to cover their costs. 
The workshop does not charge for its big band performances.
Around the time of the pandemic, local theater groups competing for performing time pushed 
the workshop out of its time slots at the library, putting its educational services into a state of flux.
Combined with a water pipe bursting the workshop’s other location at 1015 Center St. in Wilkinsburg shortly thereafter,
 leading to renovations that could take until 2027 to complete,
 it has been a quiet few years outside of big band performances.
But Dr. Young is planning a comeback when her Wilkinsburg building reopens.
Already backed by a $160,000 grant supported by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., 
annual donations from organizations such as the Pittsburgh Foundation and 
the Heinz Endowment Fund and community donations, she intends to raise $1.5 million 
to reintroduce lessons and build a recording studio that students can book.
“Music is wonderful for children,” she said. “It's wonderful for adults, too, but, 
you know, it really enhances [children’s] self-esteem, sense of self-efficacy.”
“A lot of schools don't have music anymore, but if they did, 
it would provide a lot of kids with a connection to the school.”
Dr. Young has done what she can to keep the musical tradition alive in her family. 
She encouraged her son, Jonathan, to take piano lessons when he was young, 
and he eventually became a fourth-generation saxophone player during his time at California University of Pennsylvania.
“He's not playing so much right now, but it really planted a seed, you know, to pass down the tradition of music,” she said.
“Jazz music will persist so long as there are people willing to teach it and children willing to learn,” said Ms. Young.
“It’s a dying art, but through education and exposure, it has a way of surviving,” she said.
The Jazz Workshop is continuing to connect members of the community as it works on renovating its building. 
On March 8, the workshop will host a “Jam Session for Certitude” 
at the Homewood Carnegie Library to raise money for former member Dale Fielder and his wife, Patricia, 
who lost their home in the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles in January. 
Suggested donations are between $5 and $10.
To Give to The Jazz Workshop Inc.: https://www.jazzworkshopinc.org/
Photo by Adam Babetski
Article by Adam Babetski
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Feb 1, 2025 5:30