Three high schools – one in Detroit, one in Chicago, and one in Fort Worth – did a truly epic job in keeping the jazz genius pipeline full in the middle 20th century.

We’re almost certainly missing important schools in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York City and probably some other places are well.

If you’ve got a high school list, please send it to us and we’ll add it to this page. Send to ken AT jazzonthetube DOT com

DuSable High School – Chicago

Clifford Jordan
Dinah Washington
Dorothy Donegan
Eddie Harris
Fred Hopkins
Gene Ammons
Jerome Cooper
John Gilmore
Johnny Griffin
Johnny Hartman
Joseph Jarman
Julian Priester
Leroy Jenkins
Muhal Richard Abrams
Nat King Cole
Red Holloway
Richard Davis
Ronnie Boykins
Sonny Cohn
Von Freeman
Walter Perkins
Wilbur Ware

Cass Technical High School – Detroit

Al McKibbon
Ali Jackson
Alice Coltrane
Artie Fields
Billy Mitchell
Della Reese
Donald Byrd
Dorothy Ashby
Doug Watkins
Frank Rosolino
Gerald Wilson
Geri Allen
Howard McGhee
Hugh Lawson
J. C. Heard
Kenny Burrell
Lucky Thompson
Major Holley
Paul Chambers
Regina Carter
Ron Carter
Wardell Gray

I.M. Terrell High School – Fort Worth

Charles Moffett
Cornell Dupree
Dewey Redman
John Carter
Julius Hemphill
King Curtis
Ornette Coleman
Prince Lasha
Ray Sharpe
Ronald Shannon Jackson

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

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