If the history of jazz is the story of many people coming together in many different ways to create a marvelous synergy and sense of community, so, too, is the story of the impact that Jazz, the PBS series, made on America this past year. A series that took the nation by storm, Jazz generated a level of excitement and achieved an outpouring of critical acclaim that set it apart as a television icon. The energy elicited by this series was intensified through partnerships and materials that made jazz appreciation the focus of activities designed both to celebrate and to educate. Underwritten by General Motors, the series corporate funder, these activities built on the visceral love of jazz that so many Americans already share and reached out to new audiences to introduce them to America's music.
   The innovative promotional campaign brought Jazz to latte lovers and hoop fans through an association with Starbucks, which featured Jazz and its music in 3,000 cafes nationwide, and with the National Basketball Association, which presented special jazz-themed half-time shows at NBA arenas. An extensive education campaign ensured that America's young people make jazz a part of their musical vocabulary. In cooperation with the Music Educators National Conference, Jazz curriculum materials were supplied to 75,000 teachers nationwide, reaching more than six million students. The materials, which were distributed free of charge, included a study guide, a special preview video created for students by Ken Burns, and a CD of classic jazz provided by the Verve Music Group and Columbia /Legacy Recordings.
   Foreshadowing more partnerships to come between PBS and public radio, Jazz reached out to some of the nation's greatest jazz fans through National Public Radio, which included frequent segments about Jazz on Morning Edition. Across the country, local public television stations collaborated with local public radio stations in their community. In Seattle, Washington, public television station KCTS partnered with public radio station KPLU, which is renowned for its regular schedule of midday jazz programming. KPLU jazz experts Nick Morrison and Dick Stein tailored their play lists to the artists who were featured each evening on Jazz. "We have a jazz-loving public in Seattle, but we saw a significant increase in our audience from our cross-promotional collaboration," says KPLU's director of operations, Kerry Swanson. "Through our partnership, we introduced jazz music to millions of new fans."

   With the ability to offer audio samples, streaming video clips, photos, and resource links, the Internet proved to be the perfect place to expand the content of the Jazz series. Visitors to the Jazz Web site at PBS.org/jazz apparently thought so, too. At last count the site - which garnered special honors from five major national sites, including Yahoo!, Netscape, and USA Today Online - had received more than two million unique visits.
   Through their local celebrations of Jazz, public television stations nationwide harnessed a unique vehicle for exploring the musical and cultural heritage in their own communities. For KQED in San Francisco, Jazz was an occasion for strengthening partnerships between the station and its sister media and cultural organizations in the Bay Area. Capitalizing on the station's own intensive local advertising and promotion campaign around the series, KQED produced a local radio companion program called Jazz Around the Bay and partnered with the San Francisco Jazz Festival to create new audiences for jazz and point longtime jazz fans to this remarkable series about the music they love.
   In Albuquerque, KNME saw Jazz as an opportunity to promote the living tradition of jazz in New Mexico. In conjunction with the series premiere in January 2000, the station presented a special edition of its weekly public affairs news magazine, In Focus, featuring an interview with jazz vocalist and Santa Fe resident Chris Calloway, daughter of jazz legend Cab Calloway. A week later, KNME and Chris Calloway took the excitement of Jazz live by co-sponsoring the New Mexico Jazz Workshop's "25th Season in Swinging Style!" concert in Albuquerque.
   In Chicago, jazz grew up in the 1920s fueled by the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the Deep South, and WTTW celebrated the arrival of the Ken Burns series with a variety of activities. Partnering with the Jazz Institute's annual jazz fair at the Chicago Cultural Center, WTTW hosted a panel discussion that brought musicians together with music historians to reflect on the city's jazz legacy and the future of this dynamic and evolving art form. A record crowd of 800 turned out for the fair and the audience for the panel discussion was packed. Katherine Lauderdale, WTTW's senior vice president for strategic partnerships, organized this event as part of the station's ongoing effort to engage its community. "A key part of our strategy is to use partnerships with cultural, arts and other organizations to broaden the impact of our television programming," she says. "By leveraging our respective resources, both partners reach a broader, more diverse audience than they could alone. It gives us a chance to have meaningful face-to-face dialogue with our viewers."