JB Dyas, PhD, Jazz Pedagogue
Jazz clinics, jazz pedagogy workshops, and teacher-training professional development seminars
JB Dyas is a gift to jazz education. His diligence, drive and professionalism have made him an indispensable, one-man army in the quest to teach this great music to the next generation. JB has done amazing work at some of the best-known jazz institutions in the world. At each stop along his career – from the New World School of the Arts to Miami-Dade College to the Brubeck Institute to the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz – JB has helped guide great musicians, bands and programs, taking them to another level. To top it off, JB is also one of the true gentlemen of jazz. JB serves as an example of jazz excellence. He is one of the greatest jazz educators I have ever met.
-- Frank Alkyer, Editor and Publisher, DownBeat Magazine
What is Jazz & Why It's Important to the World
Renowned jazz pedagogue JB Dyas – along with jazz great Herbie Hancock, US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and the National Peer-to-Peer Jazz Septet – present a worldwide webinar on what jazz is and why it is important in our public schools.
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What is Jazz – an Introduction
New to jazz? Need the basics of what jazz is, where it came from, how it works? Click below to watch JB Dyas’ International Jazz Day presentation on what makes jazz, jazz. Ideal as an introduction to jazz for music history and appreciation classes!
Jazz in America
Jazz in America is the Herbie Hancock Institute’s complete online Jazz History & Appreciation course with three age-appropriately designed tracks for elementary, middle, and high school students and their teachers. Comprising eight step-by-step lesson plans and all pertinent content for each grade level, the site includes videos, audio snippets, student handouts, tests, and more. Watch an animated Herbie Hancock take you back in time in his “virtual jazz time machine” to show you how jazz began!
“JB Dyas ignited my love and appreciation for jazz by breaking it down to basics that were easy for me to grasp as a teenager. His immense respect for the genre mixes with his encyclopedic knowledge of the music and his genuine love for teaching. I was schooled on JB’s tenets for practicing, musicianship, and team-building at a young age, and I have carried all of those principles with me into my professional life. I owe a large debt of gratitude to JB for shaping me into the musician I am today, and I can say the same for the countless other jazzers working in the field who were fortunate enough to study under his tutelage.”
-- Alex Lacamoire, Former Student • Jazz Pianist, Broadway Musical Director, Grammy and Tony Award Winning Orchestrator of “Hamilton” and “In the Heights,” and Kennedy Center Honoree
