San Jose Jazz: Making kids smarter through music

By Joe Rodriguezjrodriguez@mercurynews.com
POSTED:   01/17/2015 12:35:23 PM PST
"I liked the way the trombone sounded," said Ayoko, who is now 12. His friend Jaime, 11, had hoped for a saxophone but settled for a clarinet. "They said it was free, so why not?"

The musical notes that day in Santee Elementary School's echo-prone, combined cafeteria and auditorium penetrated deep enough to capture the interest of the two boys at the high-poverty school, and dozens more students like them at the forefront of a revival in music education. The jazz group's Progressions program aims to remove schoolchildren from poverty's snares through music.

It has long been suspected that music instruction helps students learn other subjects. Plato said as much 24 centuries ago, but a stream of new research bears out the Greek philosopher and them some. Music may even close the academic gap between rich and poor students.

"My grades are better than ever," said Jaime, who has become a straight-A student.

Still, one kid's success doesn't prove a theory.

"People were always asking us, 'How do you know it works?' " said Brendan Rawson, executive director of San Jose Jazz. Best known for its summer jazz festival, the nonprofit has quietly pumped $250,000 into the "Progressions" music program at Santee and two other schools in the Franklin-McKinley School District.

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