Utilizing Jazz Music to Teach Life Lessons

The Jazz Legacy Project began in 2015 as a way for Justin Varnes to teach Georgia State University students the intricacies of jazz music and history without resorting to standard textbook learning. Now, Varnes is the Director of the Lovett Conservatory of Music, and students of all ages have the opportunity to learn from his unique style of interweaving music into lessons.

At a Lovett performance celebrating Black History Month, Kevin Smith, Louis Heriveaux, and John Sandfort joined Varnes to educate and entertain Middle School and Upper School students and faculty with samplings from pioneering and highly influential jazz icons such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The Lovett event not only highlighted music from the genre’s most-acclaimed Black artists, but also spotlighted their personal biographies. Facts like Coltrane’s termination from Miles Davis’ band, before returning better than ever, provided students with an appreciation for the perseverance necessary to achieve one’s goals - both personal and professional.

Varnes, Smith, Heriveaux, and Sandfort all teach at Lovett and offer students incredible sources of instruction and inspiration through outlets such as the Ellington Jazz Band. The quartet also has a residency at the Velvet Note jazz club in Atlanta where they’ve been performing for sold-out crowds for the better part of a decade.

The Lovett School is proud to have such talented musicians in residency that are eager to share the story of Black jazz history with our community. It’s a story that bassist, Kevin Smith, said is one that “some of the more modern musicians are aware of, but some of them are not.” Given the inextricable link between early jazz music and modern rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, and even pop music, pianist Louis Herivaux commented that, “most academics involved in teaching music come from European classical - but this [genre] was born right here on American soil and I think it needs to be highlighted.”

Learn more about Lovett’s Conservatory of Music.