MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, FL (November 30, 2007) – Florida Atlantic University’s department of music recently announced the largest donation of jazz music it has ever received. The donation, a collection of jazz music worth $142,500, was made by Dr. Henry F. Ivey of Delray Beach. The collection will be housed in the music department on FAU’s Boca Raton campus and will be available for student and faculty use.
The collection is 11,655 pieces consisting of 6,750 records, 2,650 CDs, 1,550 audiotapes, 500 books, 741 rare books, an extensive collection of sheet music, and stereo and storage equipment. All the jazz greats are represented with CDs and records of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Condon and Jelly Roll Morton, to name a few. There are 500 rare albums dating from the 1920s, over 2,000 albums dating from the 1930s and over 3,000 from the 1940s. The majority of the CDs are all in their original plastic cases and the entire collection is in excellent condition. Perhaps most important for FAU’s jazz studies program is that much of the material is no longer available for purchase anywhere.
“It is an amazing collection of music that you can’t find anymore,” said Tim Walters, director of Jazz Studies and associate professor of music at FAU. “It will be a great resource for our students and staff and it will enhance our jazz studies program. Students will be able to sit in specialized labs and access some of the most unique jazz recordings in the country.”
Ivey, not a musician himself, has a love for jazz goes back over 60 years. He purchased the first piece in the collection, the album “Sugar Blues” by Clyde McCoy, in 1940. His appreciation for jazz grew while as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, he joined the Boston Jazz Club, which met weekly, and then started to work on his jazz collection in earnest. After World War II, Ivey moved to New Jersey and joined the New Jersey Jazz Society. He was put in touch with dealers who specialized in jazz. This allowed him to increase his collection. Ivey’s favorite items in the collection are the recordings of composer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton.. He even has the jazz legend’s business card.
“I am happy that FAU will be able to keep the collection together and that it will be used by people who appreciate great jazz music,” said Ivey. “This collection is just too great to be broken up.”
The School of the Arts in FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters brings together FAU’s music, theatre and art departments, as well as the University Galleries, to provide specialized and interdisciplinary education for arts students. For more information about jazz studies in the School of the Arts, call 561-297-3824.
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