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Black top hats and a gold star centerpiece decorate a table for New Year's Eve festivities at the Jekyll Island Club in Georgia.
Georgia

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

Program No. 22503RJ
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Itinerary
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, programs are typically advertised more than a year prior to their start date. Read More.
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, programs are typically advertised more than a year prior to their start date. As a result, some program activities, schedules, accommodations, personnel, and other logistics occasionally change due to local conditions or circumstances. Should a major change occur, we will make every effort to alert you. For less significant changes, we will update you during orientation. Thank you for your understanding.
Duration
6 days
5 nights
What's Included
12 meals ( 5B, 1BR, 2L, 4D )
7 expert-led lectures
4 expert-led field trips
4 performances
An experienced Group Leader
Taxes and customary gratuity
Road Scholar Assurance Plan
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Activity Note
Hotel check-in from 4:00 p.m. Remember to bring your name tag.
Afternoon:
4:00 p.m.: After you check in and have your room assignment, join us at the Road Scholar table to meet with program staff, get any updated information, and confirm the time and location of the Orientation session. If you arrive late, please locate your Group Leader and let them know you have arrived. 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. This program is staffed with an instructor, who will lead music classes, and a Group Leader who will deal primarily with logistics; we will also hear from local experts on field trips. Program-related travel and transfers will be via passenger van unless noted otherwise. All program meals are served buffet-style with a variety of options to accommodate most dietary needs. On your health form, only note dietary restrictions that may be difficult to manage by selecting from the buffet. If necessary, we'll contact you to arrange a special plate. If a special plate is prepared for you, it will replace the buffet options. 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.
Dinner:
We will enjoy a meal together at the historic Jekyll Island Club Hotel.
Evening:
At leisure. Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.
Activity Note
Walking up to 2 blocks on flat surface with some uneven surfaces. Standing at the Sea Turtle Center for up to 1 hour.
Breakfast:
In the hotel’s Victorian-era Grand Dining Room.
Morning:
We’ll gather in our private banquet room for the first of our instructors’ scintillating multi-media shows combining music, photos, and stories to weave the quilt of American Pop music from its beginnings in Ragtime to its progression to the Ragtime Band music that would eventually inform early New Orleans—or Dixieland—Jazz. Covering from 1897 to the late 1920s, we’ll explore the music, lives, legacies, and lore of Scott Joplin, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong among others.
Lunch:
Lunch will be served in a private banquet room at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.
Afternoon:
Following lunch, we’ll be joined by a local expert who will tell us about the fascinating ecology of this barrier island. We will then visit the nearby Georgia Sea Turtle Center, an education and rehabilitation facility, to learn from a staffer about the sea turtles that come back year after year to use the beaches of Jekyll Island as a nesting ground.
Dinner:
At the hotel.
Evening:
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 counterclockwise shuffle considered part of the spiritual character of the experience. Ring shouting was widely thought to have died out but had 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.
Activity Note
Minimal standing and walking. Extent and duration of walking and other activities during free time according to personal choice.
Breakfast:
In the hotel’s Victorian-era Grand Dining Room.
Morning:
Our instructors’ second music history class will begin with a dive into the sounds, sights, and settings of the Blues. Its history and structure will come alive in images, recordings, and live musical examples. We’ll also illuminate the way the Blues traveled out of the rural south to cities such as New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago, each new location developing a distinctive Blues variation. We’ll move on through the origins of Tin Pan Alley, the legendary area in New York, touching on its composers and lyricists, including stories and songs of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, James P. Johnson, and others. Ragtime, Blues, Jazz: all these styles melded to become some of the most popular music in American history.
Lunch:
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.
Afternoon:
Free time. This period of time has been set aside for your 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. Please note that the period scheduled for free time is subject to change depending on local circumstances and opportunities for independent exploration.
Dinner:
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.
Evening:
As you make your way back to the hotel from the day's adventures, join our instructor along with a few friends that will provide musical entertainment.
Activity Note
Getting in/out of a van. Walking up to 2 blocks; standing about 1/2 hour at Sea Turtle Center. For dinner in the Grand Dining Room: jackets or collared shirts and slacks requested for gentlemen, Sunday attire for ladies.
Breakfast:
In the hotel’s Victorian-era Grand Dining Room.
Morning:
We’ll board the tram with our Group Leader and ride to the Historic District Museum classroom for a presentation by a member of the Historic District’s team on Jekyll’s history. We’ll then reboard the tram to see the island’s 240-acre National Historic Landmark District, where gilded-era millionaires spent winter vacations with family, friends, and each other. It is said that Jekyll Island’s wealthy visitors once represented 1/6 of our nation's total wealth. We’ll have expert commentary aboard the tram and make two stops in the Historic District.
Lunch:
At the hotel, we’ll have a special high tea at the historic Jekyll Island Club Resort.
Afternoon:
Our music instructors will continue our multi-media journey through the evolution of Blues and Jazz. We will learn more about the double-sided coin of Blues Music, from the polished sounds of Ma Rainey and the Smiths (Bessie and Mamie) to the rural pinings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and Sonny Boy Williamson, to the culmination of the style in the music of B. B. King. Like Blues, Jazz traveled far from its geographic origins. From New Orleans to its eventual spread throughout the country, Jazz began to take on regional styles and flavors, eventually taking us to the Swing Era, artists like Cab Calloway and Fletcher Henderson leading the way.
Dinner:
A special New Year’s Eve Dinner at the Jekyll Island Club.
Evening:
Our jazz instructor and “The Jazz Quartet” will provide after-dinner entertainment. For those that would like to join us, all are welcome to attend the annual Jekyll Island Club New Year’s Eve party to ring in the new year at the Morgan Center.
Activity Note
Morning class; minimal standing or walking; stepping on and off the shuttle van.
Breakfast:
Light breakfast options are available in the private banquet room.
Morning:
Our time together concludes with a fast-paced multimedia exploration of the stories and music of some of the most influential jazz musicians and groups, with virtual stops in the various geographic hot beds of jazz starting with New Orleans and traveling on to Chicago and Kansas City, and learn the influence these different locales had on the music and the musicians. We’ll put jazz in context regarding its past, present, and possible future. Our class will feature a special wrap-up session about the music we've experienced during the program.
Brunch:
We will enjoy the annual Jekyll Island Club Resort’s “Good Luck” Brunch Buffet tradition.
Afternoon:
Following brunch, we will join our instructor for an upbeat musical wrap-up show and question-and-answer session. We will then enjoy an afternoon boating field trip in search of dolphins and other wildlife while admiring the scenic views of Jekyll Island. Along the way, our captains and master mariners will share their years of experience on the pristine Georgia coastline.
Dinner:
At the Eighty Ocean Kitchen at the Jekyll Island Ocean Club. Share favorite experiences and enjoy camaraderie with new Road Scholar friends during our farewell dinner.
Evening:
At leisure. Prepare for check-out and departure in the morning.
Activity Note
Hotel check-out by 12:00 Noon.
Breakfast:
We’ll enjoy breakfast together in the historic Jekyll Island Club Grand Dining Room. This concludes our program.
Morning:
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 like our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!
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