The Jazz Institute of Chicago was founded in 1969 by a small band of jazz fans, writers, club owners and musicians to preserve the historical roots of Chicago's music and ensure the music would not be lost in a time when rock was subsuming cultural economics. The first part-time administrator was hired in the late 80s. By 1990, the first full-time Executive Director was engaged. Current Executive Director, Lauren Deutsch, was appointed in October 1996, and since then has chartered a course of strategic growth, expanding to 4 FTE staff and an annual budget of over $800,000. There are approximately 1000 members of the JIC, and 30 volunteers serve on the Board of Directors. The Jazz Institute of Chicago serves the community with community jazz concerts year-round, and since 2001 has supported music students, teachers and their schools with the dynamic Jazz Links Education program. From the Chicago Jazz Festival which JIC has programmed since 1979, to JazzCity community concert series presented all over the city since 1997, the Jazz Institute of Chicago seeks to open peoples' ears to new music by standing the familiar and the unfamiliar side by side. Made in Chicago:World Class Jazz at Millennium Park began in 2005 and JIC began annual tours to Poland in 2006. These endeavors are undertaken to ensure that new audiences continue to be developed, to recognize Chicago's place in jazz history, and to inspire the community for many generations to come.

The JIC's mission: to preserve and perpetuate jazz in all its forms is rooted in the idea of recognizing the direct influences that diverse communities have contributed to the development of jazz and providing a foundation of support to encourage the preservation and evolution of each of its forms. Focusing on the contributions of Chicago's musicians and history, it seeks to engage new audiences and artists in experiences with this art form that might not otherwise be available to them. The JIC feels it is essential for youth to recognize and understand jazz as a significant part of their cultural and intellectual heritage. The Jazz Institute firmly believes that our organization and its partners of community organizations, city agencies, cultural institutions and most importantly the musicians themselves, have mutually benefited from its long history of collaboration. In that way the organization is not unlike the music it strives to preserve and perpetuate. Jazz is a fusion of cultures; a constant experiment in democracy; a music that is truly an American art form.

The Jazz Institute of Chicagos current program areas are community concerts and the Jazz Links education program. Two major jazz festivals and a community concert series serve over 206,500 people per year, and the Jazz Links education program serves over 5,600 teachers and students. Jazz Institute employed 528 musicians in 2009, more than 90% of them from Chicago. The JazzCity community concert series presents the best of Chicago jazz in ten neighborhoods per year, linking artists to Chicago's neighborhoods. Initiated with the Chicago Park District in 1997, the free concert series prioritizes neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Chicago and plays to about 5,000 people a year. In addition to presenting outstanding established artists, each concert opens with young student musicians providing an outlet for feeding new talent into the mainstream. Since 1979 we have partnered with the City of Chicago to program the Chicago Jazz Festival. The festival now features four stages, including the Chicago Community Trusts Young Jazz Lions stage, presenting the next generation of Chicago jazz. In 2005 the City reached out again to the Jazz Institute of Chicago, this time to program the Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series in its newly minted Millennium Park. The Jazz Links educational program focuses on creating opportunities for both teachers and students inside and outside of school. Programs include artist residencies in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), jam sessions for young students, a Jazz Links Student Council that gives students opportunities to develop leadership/professional skills and perform in venues across the city, and co-sponsoring the All-City Jazz Competition and All-City Jazz Ensemble in partnership with CPS. A key component of the Jazz Links program is the Teachers' Advisory Council comprised of CPS music instructors who have been instrumental in designing professional development workshops for their peers including a jazz summer camp for music educators. Our first jazz camp in July 2009 engaged 54 music educators. All workshops comply with teachers certification standards. JIC has built community for many years. In 1999 the Chicago Composers Project began commissioning compositions created collaboratively with residents of the city's neighborhoods. From Bronzeville, home to Louis Armstrong and numerous other important jazz innovators, to Humboldt Park where Afro-Caribbean music found it's way into the city's heartbeat. In 2001 the diversity of Asian communities in Chicago was explored and in 2002 our large Polish population contributed to the effort. In 2008 the Jazz Fair, a mid-winter jazz festival showcasing Chicagos emerging and established talent ended its 30 year reign. In the early eighties the JIC partnered with the Chicago Board of Education to create a jazz curriculum and concert presentation program in Chicago Public High Schools. In the early 90s, JIC participated in the Lila Wallace Readers Digest National Jazz Network.