[BHS Etree] BUSD: Jazz Founder Dr. Herb Wong Passed Away at 88

[BHS etree]

PLEASE do not reply to this email, contact Mark Coplan
markcoplan at berkeley.net 

 

This comes to us from Sarah Cline, Berkeley High School Jazz Program
Director:

 

We in BHS, and BUSD, Jazz lost our founding father this Easter. Dr. Herb
Wong passed early in the morning Sunday April 20th. 

 

Dr. Wong was the visionary principal of Washington Elementary School who was
responsible for the hiring Phil Hardymon, Dick Wittington and Bob Chaconas
to teach jazz to little kids in the Berkeley Unified School District, way
back in the late 1960's. At that time he was one of a very few people in the
nation who believed in jazz education at the elementary school level -- as
music education, as a part of the civil rights movement, and as a way of
propagating a truly democratic and artistic spirit among those of us in the
next generation.

 

Inline image 2

Dr. Herb Wong, Washington Elementary School Principal invited world class
big bands to perform for BUSD students.

 

There was no actual existing jazz curriculum written for such little kids,
and so Dr. Wong's newly hired teachers set about creating it.  Their work
showed the way to an entire nation.  In the meantime, Dr. Wong brought
famous jazz musicians including Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson to give
concerts at ... Washington Elementary School.  Unbelievable!

 

Talk about idealism.  Talk about the 1960s.  Talk about Berkeley.  Talk
about Dr. Herb Wong.

 

It was this vision of Dr. Wong's that gave so many of us the opportunity to
learn about jazz, fall in love with the music, and become the artists and
people that we are today.  Scores of professional jazz artists are alumni of
the program Dr. Wong started, nurtured, believed in, and stumped for.  

 

BHS Jazz has been planning to honor Dr. Wong at our annual alumni concert,
this year on June 1st. The City of Berkeley is set to issue an award, and
now ... it will very sadly have to be presented posthumously.  It would be
very fitting for the Berkeley Unified School District to also honor Dr. Wong
at this occasion, for his unparalleled service to our schools.  

 

Another giant has fallen. Continuing to carry out Dr. Wong's vision falls to
those of us who remain.

 

There is a rather incomplete obit here:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_25605000/herb-wong-bay-area-jazz-lov
er-expert-dies

 

In 2009 at the BHS Jazz Ensemble Alumni All Stars Concert, Dr. Wong spoke at
length about the program that he developed. I had the opportunity to record
his talk in this previously unreleased video. This video features one number
by the 1977 to 2008 BHS Jazz Alumni Al Stars, and the words of Dr. Herb
Wong.

 

BHS Jazz Ensemble Alumni All Stars and Dr. Herb Wong:
https://vimeo.com/92656149

 

Mark Coplan, Public Information Officer

Berkeley Unified School District

510-644-6320 Cell: 510-472-3811

 

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