New Year’s in Style: Jazz and the Jekyll Island Club

Program Registration. After you have your room assignment, come to the Road Scholar table to register with the program staff and get your welcome packet containing your name-tag, up-to-date schedule that reflects any last-minute changes, other important information, and to confirm when and where the Orientation session will take place. If you arrive late, please ask for your packet when you check in.

We will enjoy a meal together at the historic Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

Orientation. The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. Meals are served as a buffet and include a variety of options to meet most dietary needs and preferences. If you have a required dietary restriction that will be difficult to accommodate by self-selecting items from the buffet, a special plate (chef's choice) will be prepared for you. If a special plate is served, the buffet items will not be available in addition to the special plate. Please only indicate required dietary restrictions if you would like a special plate prepared for you. Periods in the daily schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding. Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.

Breakfast in the hotel’s Victorian-era Grand Dining Room.

When the Jekyll Island Club opened in 1888, American music was a divergent mix of forms and styles. Elsewhere, classical music was vibrant and thriving across Europe. Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Yeomen of the Guard” debuted that year at the Savoy Theatre in London. Among the most popular American songs were “Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill” and “Where Did You Get That Hat?” Ragtime was almost a decade away, but when it emerged, it swept the country with its syncopated rhythms. We’ll gather in our private meeting room at the hotel for the first of our music instructor’s four classes on musical history, structure, and styles, focusing this morning on ragtime and Dixieland. We’ll learn about Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and other prominent Dixieland artists.

Lunch will be served in a private banquet room at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

An area expert will then lead us through the public spaces of the hotel, sharing stories about the various rooms, the woodwork, leaded glass, the people, and their pastimes. The stories are interesting and special to this National Historic Landmark. We’ll be joined by a local expert who will tell us about the fascinating ecology of this barrier island. One of its inhabitants, the knobbed whelk, is the state shell of Georgia. We’ll also discuss the sea turtles that come back year after year to use the beaches of Jekyll Island as a nesting ground.

We will enjoy a meal at the Jekyll Island Club.

Appropriately for a program when we’ll “ring in” the New Year, we’ll learn about the history of the “ring shout” that is perhaps the oldest surviving African-American performance tradition in the country. We’ll meet several members of a local group dedicated to preserving Gullah language, song, and dance who will share their heritage with us. The ring shout was an expression of religious culture and a precursor of other forms of music from spirituals and gospel to jazz. Its African origins are apparent in ritualized, dance-like movements in a circle, call-and-response singing, and hand clapping. “Shout” refers to movement rather than vocalizing, a counter-clockwise shuffle considered part of the spiritual character of the experience. Ring shouting was widely thought to have died out but had actually continued all along in McIntosh County, just north of Jekyll Island. It was reintroduced to the wider world in 1980. The McIntosh County Ring Shouters have since performed at state and national folk festivals, at Lincoln Center in New York, on television, and recordings. They continue to practice the ring shout in McIntosh County on Watch Night, New Year’s Eve.

Hotel buffet.

We will visit the Jekyll History museum, then board the tram to see the island’s National Historic Landmark District, where gilded-era millionaires spent winter vacations with family, friends, and each other. We’ll have expert commentary aboard the tram and make two stops in the Historic District.

Holiday High Tea at the Hotel.

After lunch we'll join together with our instructor for the second musical history class. We will begin with an introduction to blues music and its history and structure. We’ll move on through the origins of Tin Pan Alley, touching on its composers and lyricists, including works by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, James P Johnson, and others. The birth of the blues is intertwined with the musical expression of slaves, former slaves, and their descendants. Once it moved out of the rural South, cities such as New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago began developing their distinctive blues variations. Tin Pan Alley was the name given to an specific area in New York City where many music publishers were located in the late 1800s. In those days before records and radio, publishers hired piano players to perform music by their songwriters, music they wanted to sell. “Tin pan” was slang for an upright piano. As the years went on, ragtime melded into the blues, jazz, and other popular music. Tin Pan Alley produced some of the most popular music in American history.

We'll enjoy a fabulous New Year's Eve Dinner together at the hotel. After dinner, our instructor and friends will provide some wonderful Jazz music to begin our evening.

After the evening's entertainment, you're invited to join the Jekyll Island Club's "Great Gatsby" New Year's Eve Party at the Morgan Center for a night of dancing, live music, and to raise a toast to 2025! Happy New Year!

Light Breakfast at the hotel.

Our music instructor will join us at the hotel to continue our journey through the evolution of jazz and blues. We will look at the rise and spread of jazz from New Orleans throughout the country and the move from Dixieland to swing.

Good Luck Brunch at the hotel.

Following brunch, we will enjoy an afternoon boating excursion in search of dolphins as well as other wildlife while admiring the scenic views of Jekyll Island.

Dinner at the hotel.

At leisure. Our jazz instructor along with a few friends will provide entertainment.

Hotel buffet.

Free time. Take this opportunity for personal independent exploration to see and do what interests you most. Please refer to the list of Free Time Opportunities. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions and give directions.

In our private meeting room at the hotel, our music instructor will lead our class with short biographies of some of the most influential jazz musicians and groups over the past century. We’ll delve into the various geographic hot beds of jazz such as New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and the influence these different locales had on the music and musicians. We’ll learn how recording, technology and world events shaped jazz as an art form. We’ll also get an overview of jazz in social, political, and economic perspectives as well as where we are today. Our class will conclude with a special wrap-up session about the music we’ve experienced during the program.

We will enjoy a special farewell dinner together at the Eighty Ocean Kitchen & Bar at the Ocean Club.

Our jazz instructor along with a few friends will provide entertainment.

Enjoy breakfast together in the historic Jekyll Island Club Grand Dining Room.

If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on another rewarding program in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!