BRATTLEBORO-With approximately three out of four of the concerts that have been presented at the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) over half a century preserved via video and audio, the nonprofit is "aiming to preserve all concerts with high-quality video and audio recordings" and prepare to share those and other invaluable jazz-centric materials with the world.
So said Eugene Uman, VJC's executive director, in a presentation for the jazz research group on Jan. 9 at the Jazz Education Network's annual conference in Atlanta.
At the conference, which drew 3,000 jazz professionals, between 40 and 50 people assembled for Uman's workshop to hear "how a community nonprofit developed a publicly accessible library and online archive of performances, interviews, and master classes."
Uman said in his opening remarks that "many of you here are involved with jazz studies programs and, as such, have gained access to video and audio treasures. If you're at all like our nonprofit, it takes a big project, like applying for a major grant, to encourage you to get all your other ducks in a row, seek funding, and figure out a way to organize your materials."
In a recent conversation with The Commons, Uman said the idea "is to acknowledge that there are a lot of people who are in similar situations as we are, where we have tons of great information, great resources, great material that we want to share."
The challenge is in the organizing.
Uman opened his Atlanta presentation with an overview of the VJC, noting its monthly concert series of nationally and internationally recognized jazz artists, annual emerging artist and solo jazz piano festivals, weekly jam sessions, 10 ongoing ensembles, an online composition class, an in-house big band, its Summer Jazz Workshop, community outreach, collaborative events with other nonprofits, a flagship ensemble that visits schools and independent living centers, and connections with area schools to provide instruction, as well as subsidized concert admission for students.
Uman then launched into the VJC archive project - an overview and an inside view of what it takes to create a structured, multifaceted collection that documents a past and a path, yet remains lively as it benefits jazz scholars, critics, students, and performers.
Sharing 50 years of jazz and instruction
The Jazz Center began the project in 2016, methodically organizing materials with a team that boasts an archivist, a videographer, a sound engineer, a web developer, an expert in copyright, an intellectual property specialist, a librarian, and a member of its board.
Eight years of work have already been clocked, yet there's more for the team to do to get to the anticipated launch this fall of an area on the VJC website which will include:
• Concerts: In more than 50 years of hosting performances, the VJC has amassed high-quality audio and video concert materials, many of which are rare and collectible.
"To date," said Uman, "we have presented about 270 headliner concerts and have hosted about 100 student shows."
One will be able to watch a recording of three highlights from a particular concert, see performance photos, hear a recorded interview with the headliner, and view the concert press release and poster.
• Master classes: Both the Emerging Artist Festival and Solo Piano Festival offer respective clinics, master classes, and Q&A sessions associated with their production - all of which have been videotaped since each festival's inception.
Visitors to the portal will be able to stream dozens of these master classes once the archiving process is complete.
"We've generated a lot of really important material that we feel would be useful, for instance, in academic situations," Uman said.
• The Zoller Collection: Attila Zoller, renowned guitarist who founded the VJC while spending time in his homes in Newfane and in Brooklyn, New York, set the stage for the VJC to become the standout it is.
The VJC has been given the rights to all of Zoller's 87 open-reel tapes, 57 cassette tapes, and dozens of concert videos, filmed from 1955 through Zoller's death in 1998.
"We applied for and received a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to digitize this amazing cache," Uman explained, noting that the recordings feature some of the most prominent players of late 20th-century jazz.
• Gifted books, recordings, and ephemera: Visitors to the web portal will also be able to access a catalog of approximately 700 jazz-centric books, 7,000 CDs, and hundreds of jazz LPs.
The books, especially, Uman told The Commons, "are a really important resource: We have a bigger collection than many university libraries."
Assembling the catalog
To catalog these items, the VJC received a grant from Equinox Open Library Initiative to be trained in Koha, the nonprofit's free and open-source, integrated library software.
In doing so, the VJC became a full-fledged library with software that allows cataloging of all physical holdings that live in the archive/green room space in the VJC's multi-chambered, second-floor home at the Cotton Mill in Brattleboro.
The aim is to create an on-site searchable library where one can do thorough research, though Uman reports there's a lot more cataloging and keyword search work to be done.
At this point, nonetheless, it's already quite useful, said Uman: There is "a lot of infrastructure built," and librarian John Levin and two hired assistants will bring it home this summer.
"We're planning on doing a 10-week blitz" to complete the cataloging of books and audio recordings and, most important, according to Uman, "to catalog the video assets that we have - the concerts and master classes."
Once complete, Uman says, the VJC wants to ensure the ongoing vibrancy of the archives. Thus, with web designer and developer Johnny DiGeorge, VJC Codirector Elsa Borrero has devised a means by which "every four months we're going to release three concerts, one master class, and three selections of Attila Zoller's collection, so [periodically] we have something new and interesting that we can then promote" and share with a wide audience.
Ultimately, the VJC archives will be accessible at no cost through university libraries, music education organizations, jazz societies, the Jazz Educators Network, and similar entities.
In his Atlanta presentation, Uman addressed how the on-site archive can help others.
"Options we've discussed include granting access to our library via a loaning program, hosting a 'vinyl night,' showing films of past concerts, [and] creating a gathering focused on pianists to utilize the piano master-class recordings," among others.
A bit at a time
The archives project is as expensive as it is expansive. Initially when the VJC put it out, Borrero recounted, it was envisioned as a $250,000 project.
"Of course, we didn't have money for that," she said.
Thus, she explained, it's being tackled in phases. As artists, she says they're used to such an approach. "So when we started, we divided it into phase one, two, and so on, and whenever we would get a little bit of money, we would advance a little bit," Borrero said. Since they bite off one task at a time, there does not appear to be a comprehensive budget for completion.
"We try [to] do one thing at a time and do it well," she added.
The VJC continues to raise funds for the project in the form of donations and archive-specific grants.
Through the process, four considerations have guided the archives team, as Uman explained: intellectual property laws and guidelines, cataloging protocols and file naming, storage and data management, and funding.
Making it accessible
Uman credits recording engineer Julian McBrowne and videographer Michael Hanish as being key players in the cataloging and storage of the VJC's digital assets.
"You can hold massive quantities of valuable materials," said Uman, "but if people don't know how to sail through them, they're worthless. They're not going to do anybody any good."
So the team is "not just cataloging," he said. "We're cataloging and evaluating the best methods of discovery for these materials at the same time. We're also strategizing the best use of our archives moving forward, including how to provide access to universities, jazz aficionados (like jazz societies), and local schools."
Levin heard about the project through the Vermont Historical Records Program, run by the secretary of state and Department of Libraries, the director of which was an instructor of Levin's in the master of library science program he completed in 2017 through Simmons University in Boston.
A librarian at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Levin has been interested in all forms of music since he was a teen growing up in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the 1970s.
He said the VJC "is both a performance/presenting organization and a teaching institution. So those two things combined make [the archive project] somewhat unique."
"I look at the VJC archive and library as a support for curriculum, a support for the VJC's educational mission," Levin said.
VJC Board President Julian Gerstin, who holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and has 30 years of college-level teaching to his name, says the project is "special in [that], first of all, it documents contemporary jazz history and then because it features hundreds of musicians."
Moreover, its geographic reach is worldwide.
"Eugene has always made an effort to include musicians from many countries," Gerstin said. "Young musicians coming together from all over the world: That's been one of his best focuses; another has been featuring women composers, women instrumentalists."
The archives, Gerstin said, will be a record of modern jazz creativity, a teaching and research tool, and "something that people can just enjoy."
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Uman, Borrero, and the archives team are planning a launch to coincide with the announcement of the VJC's 2025–26 season, or soon thereafter. Jazz scholars, professionals, and enthusiasts who want to stay abreast of the initiative's progress should join the VJC mailing list at vtjazz.org/contact.
Those inclined to donate time and financial support should email Uman at eugene@vtjazz.org.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.