Music Is for Life: The Spiritual Side of Jamey Aebersold

Abstract: Jazz musician, educator, and entrepreneur Jamey Aebersold is best known for publishing 133 volumes of play-a-longs and leading the popular Summer Jazz Workshops for decades. Scholars such as Tolson (2013) and Herzig (2020) have highlighted his business success, and Ake (2002) and Prouty (2019) have tackled critical issues in his jazz pedagogy. This study uses biographical detail, textual analysis, and historical context to examine Jamey Aebersold’s jazz teaching materials to reveal his spiritual influences, the spiritual elements of his play-a-longs, and his overall evangelistic approach to information dissemination. The evidence presented is collected from an extensive examination of Aebersold’s publications, other contemporaneous works, and the numerous interviews Aebersold has given with Ken Kimery, Matt Oestreicher, Monk Rowe, Doug Beach, and others. The author hopes that readers will see Aebersold’s play-a-longs in a new light, especially those who have been teaching and playing out of them for years.