Jose Antonio Diaz On 2025 JEN Conference

The 2025 Jazz Education Network Conference will take place in Atlanta, Georgia from January 8-11, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency. This is the 16th year of this transformative music experience, where jazz educators, musicians, enthusiasts, curators, researchers and others gather together to learn, connect and discover. Last year, the organization drew over 4,000 national and international attendees.

JEN President Jose Antonio Diaz shares that there will be approximately 100 events within the 4-day conference. On the website, the conference roster boasts over 351 musicians and presenters, representing numerous styles and facets of jazz.

So let's get to the real question. How much is it? The cost is incredible at $325.00 for four days, and lower prices are available for partial attendance. For registration and schedule information visit: https://jazzednet.org/conference/.

This year's conference is a multi-level "showcase" where there are "all sorts of performances, from student performances to incredible pros, that come in and share their gift with everyone that's attending the conference," Diaz shares.

"It's an incredible opportunity to share, learn, and grow the culture of the music within the country."

The conference will showcase performances by high schools, colleges and professional groups. Some include the University of North Florida Jazz Ensemble 1, Lori Williams, Alex Heitlinger Jazz Orchestra with John Fedchock and John Riley, Brubeck Octet Project, Zaremba Jazz Fellowship with Wayne Bergeron, and many more jazz groups.

Some lectures and clinics include, "Locking the Groove: Tools to Teaching Your Bass Player and Drummer to Swing Harder on the Bandstand," "An Analysis of Ron's Carter Performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3,""Consider a Career in Music," and approximately 50 other clinics.

This year's JEN president is one of the top jazz educators in the country. Diaz founded the award-winning organization Diaz Music Institute in Houston, Texas, and currently serves as the artistic director.

He is the winner of the Berklee College of Music's John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year Award, and has been inducted into Downbeat Magazine's Jazz Education Hall of Fame.

He also received the Country Music Association Foundation's Music Teacher of Excellence, the LULAC Educator of the Year Award, and is a recipient of the Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award. There are many other awards from prestigious organizations.

All About Jazz sat down with Diaz to discuss the conference.

All About Jazz: You're the president of this premiere organization centered on jazz education—what's your background?

Jose Antonio Diaz: I was born and raised in Chicago. My parents were both born in Puerto Rico. But they moved to the United States, and they met in Chicago, and got married there. My brother and I were both born in Chicago, where I actually got this whole hunger and inspiration for music. Because when I was growing up, there was just so much music that was happening. It was incredible because not only did I hear a lot of music from my own culture living in Chicago, you're gonna hear a lot of blues. Then the generation of musicians before me which was Earth, Wind and Fire, the Ohio Players and all the R&B groups, had the horn sections in it.

To me it was like jazz-infused R&B music and it was amazing dance music. A lot of times there was so much improvisation involved in it. However, it wasn't until I got into high school and I started playing trumpet, that I got turned on to jazz. I mean I heard this Count Basie recording and I was hooked. I just never heard anything like that. It's so hard to describe. It was actually big band music that got me hooked before the small group music did. I was a lover of horns and the horn section. I enjoyed the amazing legendary players, like Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and so on.

So that's how I got so involved with jazz. Falling in love and being inspired by it. Moreover, as a kid, hearing how Afro-Cuban/Afro-Caribbean music is so related with straight-ahead jazz, the music just made so much sense and tied in everything for me.

AAJ: This conference is impressive, in terms of its offerings and the number of attendees. It's like a jazz mecca.

JAD: As an educator, it's really important that this conference is out there and that my students have access to it. It's a conference that I'm very excited and proud of because it is about education and it's very student-centered. There are a lot of conferences that would say they are, but not really. One of the centerpieces of this conference is the JENeration Jazz Festival, which showcases student performances.

It's also important for students to come in and get feedback from professional players and high-level jazz educators. It's a wonderful opportunity for student and educator growth. So that, to me, is really what jazz education is all about.

AAJ: What about the networking that happens at a conference with high-level professionals and thousands of people?

JAD: The networking part is really important. The learning of our music is in a way that could be very similar to how people learned the music in the first place, which is by being on the road, on the bandstands, and to have an opportunity to talk.

The networking part is so important because the historical significance of the music is learned by hearing from legendary people who were part of the innovation of the music, or were one person removed from the legendary people that were a part of that music.

A legend that comes to mind that I would say is Jon Faddis, who's been mentored by Dizzy Gillespie and the Heath Brothers. He can tell you for sure how things were, and how it was interpreted. He heard it from the originators themselves and he can communicate that back to students.

Faddis is great with young people, and I've hosted him many times at my school. He's been just amazing. Another incredible young talent at the conference is trumpeter Sean Jones. The last performance that I heard him play at, I was like, "Oh my God, how can somebody just be so creative and play so beautifully at the spur of the moment and have so much spirituality?"

When you hear him play, you just hear the whole history of culture, how he interpreted that and how he has become that. It's just incredible. He's young and we're going to have his voice for years to come.

Another person who has attended past conferences is Jeff Coffin who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because he's a part of the Dave Matthews Band. He's been available at every single one of these conferences, just like Victor Wooten. And our conference kids know them, admire them, and look up to them.

These guys are at the conference, walking around, just like everyone else, and if someone stops them to say hello or ask for a photo, they're absolutely gracious. They will absolutely take the time to speak to young people and help encourage them to keep after their craft

AAJ: It's essential for a well-known player to take the time to connect with you.

JAD: Yes. Because a lot of times when you're working with young people, especially as an educator in the schools, you'll say some things over and over, trying to get the skill set or the concept across. But then it'll be that one person that says it in a certain way and all of a sudden it clicks for the kid. This happens a lot at these conferences.

Sometimes they're thinking "Maybe I don't have what it takes," or "I feel like I'm stuck in a rut." Then they hear validation and advice from these incredible musicians, who were in the same kind of situations that they were in. The musicians tell them how they worked on certain issues, and this helps inspire them. They think, "Hey, they went through the same thing, so I could absolutely make it!"

So to me, that's what the conference is all about—great music, great, great clinics, great people all around.

AAJ: That's great, it is life-changing to meet a music hero or gladiator.

JAD: Then there is also an opportunity for kids to meet other kids that will potentially be the next great "whatever." That seemed to happen like on multiple occasions within my own program.

I remember at one music festival, I think in Orlando, that my students went to a student jam session and some of them were just blown away hearing their peers playing. It was great for them to become peers with someone like Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Chris Potter, They were kids at that time, and now these are the legendary people that we're listening to right now.

Every generation is going to have that group of musicians that are going to be the leading generational voice of the music. And I would tell my students, "That could be one of you guys."

AAJ: How many will attend the conference?

JAD:Almost 4,000 folks showed up last year in New Orleans. I'm hoping that we have something near that, this year. You know, I know that it's always tough to beat out being in New Orleans because that's the birthplace of jazz. When people talk about jazz, the first place many think about is New Orleans. And it's just such a great place to be for this conference.

But Atlanta is a beautiful city. They've got great music and legendary people. So we're hoping to have great attendance. I don't have the numbers just yet. The staff is still getting all the registration submissions together. But I know that the main hotel is already completely booked.

Many folks are happy to go to other hotels for the conference. So to me, when your conference hotel is filled out, that's always a really good indication that the conference is going to be well attended.

AAJ: When did you become the JEN President? And what are your goals for JEN?

JAD: This is my first year as president. I spent two years previously as president-elect. The track for president is a six-year track. So you have two years as president-elect, two years as president, and two years as past president. My goals for this year, now that we have more normalcy, is to help the organization become more organized in terms of our structure with our memberships. I want to also help it become more financially strong so that we can do more programming for our membership.

AAJ: I know that COVID-19 set a lot of organizations back.

JAD: Bouncing back from COVID-19 was pretty tough. In 2020, we had the conference, but in 2021 we didn't. And then we had a conference in Dallas in 2022. Then right when our conference was about to hit, we got another COVID surge. So the attendance really dropped because so many people were getting sick and that kind of thing.

We ended up going to Orlando and the attendance was a little better there. And then when we hit New Orleans, our attendance got right back to where we wanted it. So now we're trying to build on that and we want to structure our organization financially so that we can survive the constant increase in the cost of living. Because every time we turn around, there's inflation that just keeps going up like about 5% to 7% a year.

We're trying to figure out how to keep our conference still affordable for everyone to come, still be able to have it in really good places, and do our programs the way we want it. So to me, those are things that I would like to accomplish. Having really strong plans for our financial situation to be able to keep up with the inflation of the economy, is key.

AAJ: I wanted to go to a concert in NY at a jazz club, and a ticket was over $100, not counting what I would spend on travel to get there. I love the price of the conference.

JAD: I will say that as a jazz enthusiast, the price to come to the conference is a steal because they're going to see so many incredible concerts for the money. You're going to easily spend, if it's a couple, about $300 for just one major jazz concert between getting a ticket, dinner, or, whatever. You're going to spend at least that.

AAJ: What is included in the conference pricing at $325?

JAD: From Wednesday evening through Saturday, you will be able to see all performances and clinics, which total over 100 events. You've also got the JENeration Festival, where the young kids are playing, and major concerts. We have in the neighborhood of 50-60 clinics. Not only that, when you walk around you're going to meet some professional musicians, get an opportunity to speak with them and take photos if you'd like.

I feel like this is just an incredible experience for a jazz enthusiast.

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