The Beacons in Jazz Gala was a fundraiser and award ceremony hosted by the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School from 1987 until 2006. The gala served as a ceremony for the “Beacons in Jazz Awards,” an award presented to living jazz musicians whose careers and achievements were taken to be of historical and artistic significance to the genre. The gala featured a concert, and was likely modeled on the long-running Parsons Table Award presented at the annual Parsons Fashion Benefit, a fundraiser for The New School’s art and design college, Parsons School of Design.

In 1984, concert promoter Paul J. Weinstein was asked by jazz saxophonist Zoot Sims to throw a party after his death. In 1986, following Sims’ death in 1985, Weinstein became the first chair of the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School. The same year, in collaboration with New School donor and Zoot Sims’ widow Louise Sims, Weinstein held “A Party For Zoot,” which became an annual fundraiser for the jazz program’s scholarship fund. In March 1987, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music held a similar event for the recently-hospitalized bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee, a concert titled “Beacons in Jazz: A Tribute to Howard McGhee,” to raise money to cover McGhee’s medical bills. At the concert, McGhee was presented with multiple awards, including a “Beacons in Jazz” medal. McGhee was hospitalized again shortly after, and died in July. In early 1988, it was decided to make the “Beacons in Jazz Award” an annual event, with the medal given to any number of senior, living jazz musicians each year. The second ceremony was held in the Fall semester of 1988, and hosted by radio host Phil Schaap and awarded to Buck Clayton and Roy Eldridge.

The following years saw a concerted effort to raise the profile of the award, and to increase ticket prices, in line with the prestigious Parsons Fashion Benefit. High-profile public relations persons were hired, and an effort was made to invite celebrities known for their love of jazz, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Clinton.There was also an unsuccessful effort, repeated in subsequent years, to get the Mayor of New York City, David Dinkins (as both a well-known fan of jazz music and a former New School instructor) to proclaim the day of the gala as “Beacons in Jazz Day.” In 1989 It was decided that the next ceremony should honor Cab Calloway and feature a high-profile host, the comedian Bill Cosby, the star of what was then the most-watched program on American television, The Cosby Show. Difficulties with scheduling Cosby delayed the event until Spring 1990. Future galas would continue to be held in the Spring, and Cosby also hosted the 1991 gala. Scheduling Cosby was again an issue in 1992, and after a failed effort to secure actor Danny Glover as host, tap dancer Gregory Hines agreed to host the event, then honoring Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Carter. The 1993 ceremony, honoring singers Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams, was hosted by television personality Steve Allen and featured a printed welcome message presented to each attendee signed by amateur saxophonist and then-President of the United States Bill Clinton. It also, for the first time, began the practice of awarding a “Beacons in Jazz” award to a non-musician, honoring record producer Norman Ganz.

Internally, 1993’s gala was considered a failure for its overproduction and fragmented focus, resulting in an effort to balance the event’s “star power” and public profile with a more scholarly focus on jazz as an art form. The 1994 event was hosted by actors, African American civil rights activists, and husband-and-wife Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee and presented to drummer Max Roach and the “jazz pastor” John Garcia Gensel. This new focus, however, resulted in the event receiving significantly less publicity than in previous years, which was compounded by the decision of Bill Cosby to host a rival event honoring John Gensel the following month, as part of the JVC Jazz Festival New York. The 1995 event was again held in the Fall semester as it was organized, in line with the ongoing “Party for Zoot” as well as the JVC Jazz Festival’s hosting of his 80th and later 90th birthdays, around the 85th birthday of double bassist and photographer Milt Hinton.

While the 1995 event had generated much greater publicity than the previous year, the Beacons in Jazz gala consistently failed to meet its fundraising goals. The 9th Beacons in Jazz Award was repeatedly delayed until 1999, when it was presented to Milt Jackson, Chico Hamilton, and George and Joyce Wein, and hosted by television presenter Ed Bradley. This was also the first event to be held off-campus, being hosted at Laura Belle, a large supper club near Times Square. The awards were next held in 2001, and were then held annually, at various venues around Manhattan, until 2006. In 2005, it was renamed the “Beacons in Jazz and Contemporary Music Award.” The idea was revived in 2009, but was delayed until 2010 and ultimately canceled.

Sources

“James Moody, Jackie McLean, and Phil Woods to be honored with the Beacons in Jazz Awards. New School University Jazz Program Gala on Monday, April 2 at 6:30pm at the Puck Building”, 2001 February 28. The New School Pressroom. https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2001/030101_beacons.html.

“New School To Honor Beacons In Jazz”, 2003 March 21. Downbeat. https://downbeat.com/news/detail/new-school-to-honor-beacons-in-jazz

“New School to Present Beacons Awards”, 2006 January 30. Downbeat. https://downbeat.com/news/detail/new-school-to-present-beacons-awards

“Wayne Shorter To Receive Beacons In Jazz Award”, 2002 January 30. Downbeat. https://downbeat.com/news/detail/wayne-shorter-to-receive-beacons-in-jazz-award

Annual Report 2005-2006 The New School: Building A New Future, 2007 March, Box: mixed_n21, Folder: 12. New School Annual Reports, NS.01.01.08. The New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS010108_000024

Hammond, John, “Beacons in Jazz Presentation Honoring Cab Calloway Large 540p”, 2013 August 25. Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/BeaconsInJazzPresentationHonoringCabCallowayLarge540p

New School for Social Research 1989-1990 Annual Report, 1990 September 7, Box: 1, Folder: 7. New School Annual Reports, NS.01.01.08. The New School Archives and Special Collections. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS010108_000007

The New School School of Jazz and Contemporary Music Dean's Office records, Box: 3; Box: 4. MA.06.01.01. The New School Archives and Special Collections.

Wilson, John S. “The Pop Life; Jazz Party in Memory of Zoot Sims, ‘On the Road’, 1986 December 3. The New York Times, Section C, 26. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/03/arts/the-pop-life-jazz-party-in-memory-of-zoot-sims-on-the-road.html