Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival

The Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival (PCCJF), later renamed the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival, was held on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley from the early 1970’s to the late 1990’s. The host, the University of California Jazz Ensembles, invited musicians from California, Oregon, Washington, and other western states bands to perform during a weekend event held annually in April. For several years held on the campus of Cal State Northridge, Dr. David W. Tucker, the director of the UC Jazz Ensembles, offered to organize and present the festival after Cal State Northridge decided it could no longer host the event.

Professional jazz musicians appeared as guest soloists with the premier Wednesday Night Band of the host UC Jazz Ensembles and clinicians. The festival was administered solely by staff and student members of the UC Jazz Ensembles. Performance venues included Zellerbach Auditorium and Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus.

The festival was one of the regional collegiate festivals in the American Collegiate Jazz Festival program. 
The American College Jazz Festival, which was established in 1968, took place at eight regional sites throughout the United States, but disbanded in 1973. Of the various regional collegiate festivals, the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival and Elmhurst College Jazz Festival continue.

Initially a competition for collegiate vocalists, combos, and big bands, the festival expanded to include high school competitors and was re-named the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival. It proved to be a major recruiting tool for high school jazz musicians who had considered and had the academic qualifications to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley.

In its later years the festival was underwritten by See’s Candy of the San Francisco Bay Area. After the death of the youngest child, Charles B. "Harry" See (1921-1999), of the founders Charles See and his wife Florence (founders in 1921 along with his mother Mary) sponsorship ceased and the PCJF was terminated due to lack of funding. In its stead, a professionally-administered, non-collegiate jazz festival, the Berkeley Jazz Festival, was created in Berkeley.

Competing against the finest big bands from the Los Angeles area, many of which had members who were studio musicians who enrolled in jazz band to keep their “chops” in shape, the host UC Jazz Ensembles Wednesday Night Band won third place in the big band division in the 1974 PCCJF. They tied for third with the big band from UCLA, home of a renowned jazz education program.

This third place victory for the UC Jazz program was a remarkable achievement for an organization that was founded by students in the Fall of 1967 and obtained their first professional director, “Doc” Tucker in the Fall of 1968.

Guest Soloists and Clinicians

• Michael Wolff
• Bill Evans
• Ed Shaughnessy
• Hubert Laws
• Chick Corea
• Herb Wong
• Bennett Friedman
• Sonny Rollins
• Freddie Hubbard
• Warren Gale
• Patrice Rushen
• Earl “Fatha” Hines
• Bill Watrous
• Toshiko Akiyoshi
• Lew Tabackin
• Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band
• Richie Cole
• Bobby McFerrin
• Christian McBride
• Joe Lovano
• Jon Faddis
• Slide Hampton
• Jimmy Heath
• Michael Brecker
• Chick Corea
• Joe Henderson

External links

• [1]
• [2]
• [encyc.org/wiki/David W. Tucker]
• [encyc.org/wiki/University of California Jazz Ensembles]