Roach continued to speak out for social justice and helped launch the field of jazz studies.

NPR: Remembering Jazz Drummer Max Roach

The JCOI, created in 2010, grew from conversations between George Lewis (then head of Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies) and Michael Geller, the ACO's executive director.

WSJ: Where Classical Music and Jazz Collaborate | By Larry Blumenfeld

Jazz icon Miles Davis was a huge boxing fan and even did some training, according to John Szwed, a professor of music and director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia.

WSJ: Music Students Hit the Boxing Ring

He studied in Paris with composer Nadia Boulanger, became the first person to teach jazz at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and started the jazz studies department at Howard University in Washington, D.

WSJ: Innovative jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd dies at 80

Some credit the rise of jazz-studies programs in colleges and universities for creating a new breed of jazz musician.

WSJ: Watching Local Jazz Flicker Back to Life