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1995
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998
| 1999
Iowa Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award This year the Iowa Association of Jazz Educators elected to sponsor a jazz educators Hall of Fame Award to be given annually at the Iowa Jazz Championships. The award will be given to a person that has demonstrated a high level of knowledge in the jazz idiom and has shared this in making a contribution towards the development of jazz education in the state of Iowa. The IAJE membership sends nominations to the IAJE executive board to select a recipient by the fall meeting at the All-State Music Festival. This year's selections were Dan Peterson and Ron Battani. DAN PETERSON
Peterson's public school career began in northwest Iowa at Havelock-Plover Schools. During the one year that Mr. Peterson taught at H-P, the first jazz band was formed and performed at several local events. Mr. Peterson moved to North Polk schools after one year where he started a jazz band and a jazz choir. These groups were the main part of the fund-raising variety show that was produced each year. The jazz band participated in numerous events in the school and community. In 1968, Mr. Peterson moved to Knoxville, Iowa where he began a third jazz band. This band traveled to the first SCIBA-Miller Music Co. jazz festival at North High School in Des Moines in 1969. In the following years, the jazz band from Knovville became a regular on the competing jazz band circuit and developed into a trophy winning band in 1972. In1974, Dan Peterson became the band director at West Des Moines Valley High School. Mr. Peterson changed the "show band" of the previous director into a Jazz Band and immediately became competitive in the jazz competition scene. The band remained active as a competition band, as a performer in the community and as the "house band" for the Girls State Basketball Tournament televised games on Friday and Saturday night of Championship Week. Dan Peterson, director at Valley in West Des Moines; Ron Battani, director at Hoover High School in Des Moines began the Iowa Jazz Championships in 1976. The Valley Bands under Dan Peterson's direction finished third in the 1976 Championships and 2nd in the 1977and 1978 Championships. RONALD L. BATTANI
In 1976-77 he was adjunct director of the Iowa State University Jazz Ensemble, Ames, Iowa. His Des Moines Hoover Jazz Band was chosen four times as Honor Band to perform at the annual Iowa Bandmasters Convention. From 1976-85 the Hoover Jazz Band placed 1st four times, 2nd four times, 3rd once and 4th once in the Iowa Jazz Championships. Mr. Battani is co-founder of the IJC. The 1976 Hoover Jazz Band (the La Festa Band) won the "National Maynard Ferguson Sound-Alike" Contest. Mr. Battan'ss Anderson High School Jazz Band in Austin, Texas has won several 1st place awards as well as best in class in several contests in Louisiana. Also, Mr. Battani's in his fifth year as director of the All-Austin Area Jazz Ensemble. The AYJE is made-up of the finest high school jazz musicians in the Austin area. On May 3, 1994 he was presented the National Band Association Outstanding Jazz Educator Award, one of only two given in the state of Texas that year. Mr. Battani, a Woodward, Iowa High School graduate, received his B.M.E. in1967 and his M.M.E. in 1973 from Drake University and is still an active performing drummer and percussionist in Austin.
Iowa Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award
Jack graduated from Radcliffe High School and received a bachelor of arts degree in commerce and finance from Coe College and a bachelor and master of music education degrees from Drake University. After performing in the U.S. Navy Band in England during World War II, he began his teaching career at Earlham High School in 1955. Recognizing the need for his students to perform and understand jazz music. Jack approached the administration with the idea of starting a high school jazz band. The administration declined to support the request with their interpretation of the word "JAZZ", so Jack named his ensemble the Earlham Stage Band and jazz education had its beginning. It did not take long for many area and regional instrumental music programs to adopt stage bands into their band curriculum. The Earlham Stage Band received constant media coverage from the Des Moines Register, KENT-TV, and the Bill Riley Talent Scouts. Jack relocated to Jefferson, Iowa in 1966 and started one of the first jazz festivals that invited jazz artists such as Clark Terry, Bud Shank, Urbie Green, Joe Farrell, Marvin Stamm, Bill Chase, and Arnie Lawrence as guest soloists. Clark Terry said the Jefferson Jazz Band was the first school jazz band he performed with and "they played just like the professionals." The Jefferson Jazz Band received many honors under Jack's direction including 1st place at the 1981 Iowa Jazz Championships and guest performing band at the prestigious Wichita Jazz Festival. Jack has served as state president of the National Association of Jazz Educators, state chairman of the National Bandmasters Association, and president of the South Central District of IBA. He is also a member of the American Federation of Musicians and continues to perform with the Jack Oatts Quartet. Since this is the 40th anniversary of the first Iowa high school jazz band, the Iowa Association of Jazz Educators is pleased to recognize Mr. Jack Oatts, the Father of Iowa High School Jazz, with the Hall of Fame Award.
Iowa Jazz Educators "Hall of Fame" Award To Coffin
Jim received his Masters degree in 1964 and after joining the faculty he instituted both the jazz and percussion programs at UNI. UNI Jazz Band I began touring Iowa high schools to attract students to the program and won their first major competition at the University of Wiscon-in Eau Claire. They were the first university jazz band west of the Mississippi to perform at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival and in 1972 won the Collegiate Mid-west competition resulting in a festival performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. An all-star band was selected from the big bands and combos at the festival and Jazz Band I had four of its members so honored and received a gold mic from Stan Kenton. The list of artists that performed with the band included Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, Marvin Stamm, Dan Haerle, Lou Marini, Jr, and Rich Matteson. Jazz Band I was among the first university jazz organizations to play at an MENC conference. Also among their credits was a 30-minute TV program produced by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the Kansas City Jazz Festival, Ohio River Arts Festival, and a five-day stint as a resident jazz band at the University of Minnesota. In 1972, Jim left UNI and joined the Selmer Company where he was the marketing, education and artists relations manager for Premier Drums. Ten years later, he joined the Yamaha Corporation and was responsible for the development and marketing of their percussion products. Jim is the author of the Performing Percussionist I & II and Solo Album published by C.L. Barnhouse. As a clinician, soloist, adjudicator and conductor he has appeared in forty states and five Canadian provinces. Since retiring in 1993 he has been a contributor to Drum Business magazine; editor of the drum set column in Percussive Notes; a marketing consultant; presenter of music business seminars sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants for college and university music majors; secretary of the Executive Committee for the Board of Directors for the Percussive Arts Society; a published fiction writer; played on and produced a CD, "The Seasons of Our Lives," distributed by Walking Frog Records (Barnhouse); interim Symphonic Band conductor at the Cal State University San Bernadino; as well as a writer and editor of a Sherlockian newsletter. One of his many honors include being noted as an outstanding university jazz educator in Duke Ellington's autobiography, Jazz is My Mistress.
Iowa Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Recipient
Mr. Dick Bauman started his first jazz band when he was a high school student in Lake City. After graduating from Northwest Missouri State University, Dick began his Iowa teaching career at lrwin High School in 1961 and by 1962 jazz band, was offered in the music curriculum during the school day. For the next five years, the lrwin Jazz Band placed at festivals in Stanton and Jefferson and was one of the first jazz bands invited to perform at the Iowa Girls State Basketball Tournament. In 1966, Mr. Bauman accepted a position at Burton R. Jones Jr. High School in Creston and started a jazz program that fall. Over the next 10 years, this band won or placed in every festival it entered and, in 1969, Dick reestablished the Creston Jazz Festival. In 1976 he became Director of Instrumental Music at Southwestern Community College and developed a full two-year curriculum for music majors. The Creston Jazz Festival became the SWCC Jazz Festival and served as the Southwest District Jazz Festival. The Southwestern Community College Jazz Ensemble performed at the Wichita and University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festivals as well as the Iowa Bandmasters Convention. Dick believed that it was important to sponsor quality jazz artists for young musicians to hear. Many jazz educators can remember taking students to the clinic/concerts by the big bands of Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Gerry Mulligan, Maynard Ferguson, Count Basic, Tommy Dorsey, and Dick's personal favorite, the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Mr. Bauman has served on the staff of several summer jazz camps and started the SWCC Summer Jazz Camp in 1984. He has adjudicated numerous jazz festivals throughout the United States and is one of the few educators that has directed an Iowa All-State High School Jazz Band and the Iowa College All-Star Jazz Ensemble. In addition, Dick has served as president of the Iowa Jazz Educators Association, president of the Southwest Iowa Bandmasters Association, and has played trombone professionally since he was 16 years old. Now relocated to the Lake Okoboji area, he has formed a big band that performs regularly in a Lakes area club.
Larry Green Named To Jazz Educators "Hall of Fame"
During his tenure as a high school music educator at Seymour, Washington, Roosevelt, and Valley High Schools, his jazz bands were known for their outstanding quality. Bands under his direction have appeared at the Mid-West Band Clinic in Chicago, the National Band Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Iowa Bandmasters Convention, the Iowa Music Educators Convention, the Montreaux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and received a "DB" award from Downbeat magazine for outstanding high school jazz ensemble. The Valley High School Jazz Ensemble under his direction received numerous awards including first place at the Jazz Championships in Class 4A on 7 occasions, six of those in consecutive years from 1982-1987 and also in 1989. He is a member of the Iowa Bandmasters Association, jazz chairman for the National Band Association, a member of the Leadership and Advocacy Committee for the International Association of Jazz Educators, presently the district manager for United Musical Instruments, U.S.A., and coordinator of the Court Avenue "Evening of Jazz". |
Dan
Peterson is the Director of Bands at Northeast Missouri State
University. He holds degrees from the University of South Dakota
and Drake University. Mr. Peterson taught for 13 years in the
public schools in Iowa and has been at his current position at
NMS for 17years. The marching band at Northeast is among the finest
in the nation and annually performs at NFL football games as well
as in exhibition at regional high school festivals in the Midwest.
The Wind Symphony under the baton of Dan Peterson has performed
at two national College Band Directors Association Conferences,
one national MENC Conference and one regional CBDNA Conference.
Mr. Peterson is a Clinician for Yamaha Percussion. 
Mr.
Ron Battani is in his 28thyear as a high school band director,
18 years in Iowa and 10 years in Texas.
The
Iowa Association of Jazz Educators annually presents the Iowa
Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award at the afternoon awards ceremony
of the Iowa Jazz Championships. The award is given to a person
that has demonstrated a high level of know-ledge in the jazz idiom
and has shared this in making a contribution towards the development
of jazz education in the state of Iowa. The IAJE membership sends
nominations to the IAJE executive board to select a recipient
by the fall meeting at the All-State Music Festival. This year's
selection is Mr. Jack Oatts.
This
year's recipient of the Iowa Jazz Educators "Hall of Fame"
Award is Mr. Jim Coffin from Anaheim Hills, California.
A Waterloo native, Jim received his bachelors and masters degree
from what is now the University of Northern Iowa. After playing
professionally in Los Angeles he returned to Iowa and began teaching
at Woodward in 1956. Soon after, he teamed up with Jack Oatts
to form the "Faculty Four," a group that remained together for
over a decade. 1957 saw the addition of the Wood-ward High School
Stage Band as part of the instrumental music program. Belle Plaine
was the next high school where Jim started a stage band after
joining their faculty in 1959 and his groups participated in the
Tallcorn Festivals held on the campus of the Iowa State Teachers
College in CedarFalls.
This
year's Iowa Jazz Educator's "Hall of Fame" award recipient is
one of the few educators that established outstanding jazz programs
at the junior high, high school, and college level.
On
behalf of the Iowa Association of Jazz Educators and the Iowa
Jazz Championships Board of Directors, this year's Iowa Jazz Educators
"Hall of Fame" award was presented to Mr. Larry Green.
Mr. Green is one of the founding members of the Iowa Jazz Championships
along with Mr. Dan Peterson and Mr. Ron Battani who were inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 1995. These three Des Moines directors
had a vision to create an event that would showcase the talent
of Iowa high school music programs and attract the state wide
attention that the State Basketball Tournaments possessed. Out
of this vision in1976, the first Iowa Jazz Champion-ships was
hosted at Des Moines area high schools and the evening finals
at Valley High School auditorium. For the next ten years, the
event was hosted at Des Moines area high schools, Iowa State University,
and the University of Iowa. It was Mr. Green's contact with Mr.
Walter Walsh of the Principal Financial Group that put into motion
their corporate sponsorship of the Iowa Jazz Championships and
brought the event to Des Moines where it has been hosted at the
Polk County Convention Complex and the Civic Center.