Music Inn (2005)

Tucked away amidst the gently rolling Berkshire Mountains, in Lenox, Massachusetts, something magical happened between 1951 and 1960 at a place called Music Inn. Under the stewardship of Stephanie and Philip Barber, Music Inn marked a turning point in the history of music in America. Virtually next door to the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Music Festival, the Inn evolved from a midsummer haven for some of America's greatest jazz and folk musicians and performers, through a period of jazz and folk "Roundtables" and then "Workshops" including scholars and critics, culminating in the first School of Jazz -- where earnest and talented students learned from and performed with accomplished masters. Frequent participation of students and performers from Tanglewood stimulated cross-fertilization between classical music and jazz. Music Inn was an undeniable force in the emergence of jazz from crowded and smoky urban clubs into concert halls. Louis Armstrong remarked in 1953, "They're doing wonderful things up there. They're really helping make music history." Noted participants at Music Inn included Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Guthrie, Geoffrey Holder, Langston Hughes, Mahalia Jackson, Tom Lehrer, John Lewis, Babatunde Olatunji, Oscar Peterson, Max Roach, George Russell, Gunther Schuller, Pete Seeger and Randy Weston. The list of performers that graced the stage of the fabled Music Barn constitutes a virtual who's who of now world-renowned musicians. During a decade rife with paranoia and finger pointing, an era of anti-Communism, anti-"Other" fervor, Music Inn was a bold experiment. There, aspiring musicians learned from the very best. Students and faculty, young and old, rich and poor, white and black, communed together, learned together and jammed together. The School developed a high national and international reputation and accepted a total of 155 students. Foreign students attended from Africa, Austria, Sweden, Holland, India, Canada, Turkey and Brazil, and American students came from 20 states. Careers were launched and legends were made. Music Inn harbored a racial and cultural harmony that defied its surrounding environment and, for a brief time, music was all that mattered. Our intent is to produce a feature length documentary to be distributed worldwide in all media. Proceeds from the distribution and sale of the documentary will go towards the establishment of a scholarship fund honoring Stephanie Barber and the Music Inn Legacy.