Remembering Homer Jackson, Founder of the Philadelphia Jazz Project
The CultureWorks team celebrates the legacy of Homer Jackson, who passed away on July 13, 2024. He was a staunch advocate for the legacy of jazz in the community.
A talented interdisciplinary artist from Philadelphia with a background in teaching and social service. His work is presented as installation, performance art, public art, video and audio. He uses images, sounds, text, live performance, video, audience participation and found objects to tell stories. As a young art student, jazz nurtured Jackson’s creativity and provided an outlet for self‐expression. In 1980, Temple University’s jazz radio station WRTI recruited Jackson to host a weekly radio program and produce a monthly magazine. Jackson enriched WRTI’s programming through artist interviews, record reviews and profiles on key musicians and musical movements until 1988. Jackson has created performances in collaboration with artists such as the late AACM violinist, Leroy Jenkins, Twin Cities‐based instrument maker and former AACM president, Douglas Ewart, as well as the award winning, Philadelphia‐based hip‐hop ensemble, The Roots. He has exhibited and performed works at institutions such as Philagraphika, The Painted Bride Arts Center, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Jackson has received grants for his transformational work from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts among others.
““The Jazz community is a piece of the larger art community, and both of these communities are extremely diverse and intersecting. It is disingenuous if we try to create and perpetuate the idea of this being about a single arts discipline, when it is really interdisciplinary.”
The Philadelphia Jazz Project worked toward moving forward an expanded presence for Jazz in Philadelphia presenting concerts showcasing Philadelphia artists since late 2011, and built an audience of 7,500+ people. It provided support for organizations including: Community Unity Music Festival, Jazz Near You/All About Jazz, Still The New Thing!: Jazz Festival, Charles L. Blockson Afro‐American Collection/Temple University Libraries, Center City Jazz Festival, ARS Nova Workshop, Producer's Guild, Digital Lighting System for Philadelphia Clef Club, United Jazz Festival & Celebratio, JazzBridge's Neighborhood Concert Series, Debut Performance of PACT Big Band, Debut Performance of Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Last Call at the Downbeat: Dizzy Gillespie Theater Project, Redesign of PhillyJazz.org‐WWW's oldest Jazz website, Coalition of Jazz Advocates‐Jazz Vespers Performance, WXPN's The Intersection of Music and Technology Dialogue, Acoustic improvement of PhillyCam Broadcast Studio, Jazz in Hawthorne Park Summer Series, Painted Bride Art Center's New Recording Label, Annenberg Center's 2014 Jazz Programming, Philadelphia Jazz Legends Illustrated Series: Volume #1, Black Star Film Festival Post‐Film Dialogue, and additional support for individual artist projects.