Come Fly With Us!

The song you're listening to is "Come Fly With Me" from our CD "Jazz Around the World" performed by the Ellington Band high school students from the Tucson area.

The Arizona Jazz Academy's top two bands, Ellington and Basie, appeared at prestigious jazz festivals in: Vienne and Paris, France; San Sebastian, Vittoria, Segovia and Madrid, Spain; and Geneva and Montreux, Switzerland, receiving awards for Outstanding Band in Montreux and Vienne. A second trip, to France, Italy, Switzerland and The Netherlands, is planned for the summer of 2007.

The AJA brought five big bands and three combos to the 2007 Fullerton (CA) Jazz Festival,. Every AJA group was awarded a rating of "Superior." For the 5th consecutive year the AJA was awarded far more honors than any other school in the competition. The AJA musicians were awarded 46 individual awards and 7 ensemble awards.

The Ellington band has performed for the past two years at the Prescott Jazz Summit as well, and our ensembles have also won honors and awards from The New Orleans Heritage Festival, and at The International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Las Vegas.

The Arizona Jazz Academy

The Academy has a recording studio, CD production room, three rehearsal rooms, a library for charts and other materials, storage rooms and offices for our teachers.

We are thankful and feel fortunate to have the ample space we lease, but unfortunately the quarters we enjoy are only temporary, as the owner intends to sell the property. We are in need of benefactors and a facility or Performing Arts Center here in Tucson that we can feel secure to call our permanent home! We need your financial support!

Educators and Guest Artists

Our students not only become extraordinary musicians, but they acquire life skills that they will take with them in every walk of life. Skills of excellence, discipline, the ability to articulate as individuals, to interact and work with others successfully, to achieve the goals they set for themselves, skills from which they and the communities in which they live will truly benefit.

Guest artists brought into do workshops, jam sessions and performances with Academy students are among the most celebrated artists and educators in the country.

AJA guest artists include Orbert Davis, Kim Richmond, Academy Award winner Dennis Roland, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Bill Trujillo, Ron Carter, University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Director Ed Peterson, Arizona State University Jazz Studies Directors Mike Crotty and Mike Kocour, The 36th Army Jazz Band, Tom Ervin and many, many others.

Please help further the education of our current and future students!

The Arizona School of Music also offers an innovative curriculum in Music Business and Recording Arts through the Southwest School of Music Technology, giving students valuable experience and a multitude of opportunities regarding careers in the musical arts. This program is responsible for recording and producing CD albums for the AJA and dozens of schools throughout Arizona and California.

The Arizona Jazz Academy Educational Program is funded solely through tuition, performances and sponsorship donations. Your kindness and contribution will provide: Instruments and Equipment, Music, Scholarships for the Disadvantaged, Travel Costs and Festival Fees, Free Workshops for the Community and Outreach in our Schools.