Photo from 1997 shows Jackie McLean with then-students Kris Allen (right) and Haneef Nelson (left). Allen graduated that year and Nelson, in 1999.

It is not just Jackie McLean's considerable talents as a jazz musician and as a teacher that make him so deserving of his recent honors, his former students say, but also the way he opens his heart to his students.

"I try to model myself after him," says Sue Terry, The Hartt School's Alumna of the Year for 2001. Terry, who became the School's first jazz graduate in 1982, says McLean is "one of the best teachers I've ever seen. He has an ability to bring out the potential not only of a student but also of a person. He treats you like he expects you to be the best that you can be.

"He's someone who his entire life has been interested in growing as a musician and growing as a person," says Terry, a Brooklyn, N.Y., saxophonist, composer, recording artist, and educator. "I still go to his concerts. I still keep in touch with him. He's one of the most important people in my life."

When McLean was recently honored with the renaming of Hartt's Department of African-American Music as The Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, "I was very proud of him," says Terry. She was one of 15 Hartt jazz alumni who returned to campus for the Nov. 17 Hartt Gala, at which McLean's honor was announced. "To see him get that award made me feel very proud for him, because he doesn't do anything in his life with the intention of looking for a reward. He does things because he believes in the value of them."

In December, McLean was honored again, when he was named one of three 2001 American Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts. He shared the honor with pianist and composer-arranger John Lewis and pianist and composer-arranger Randy Weston. The Jazz Masters fellowships recognize significant contributions to jazz, artistic excellence, and impact on the music field. Among past fellows are such jazz giants as Lionel Hampton, Dave Brubeck, and Sarah Vaughan.

McLean's place in jazz was recognized by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who included McLean among 15 jazz musicians interviewed on camera in the acclaimed Public Broadcasting System series Jazz.
Part of what sets McLean apart is his refusal to rest on his considerable accomplishments, Terry says. "He's someone who came from the foundations of jazz, was tutored by the masters who came before him [Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey], and yet didn't stop with the styles and the knowledge that he gained at the beginning."

Eric G. Matthews well remembers meeting McLean when he visited Hartt in the spring of 1981 as a prospective student, even though he had never heard of the man he now calls "a living legend."

"When I was a kid, I didn't know anything about jazz, even though I thought I did," recalls Matthews, a freelance saxophone player who lives in Lakewood, N.J. After Matthews finished his audition, McLean presented a challenge. "He told me, 'When you come here in the fall, I want you to have this learned,' and proceeded to write me out some things that I needed to work on.

"I hadn't even been accepted yet. It just blew my mind. I was just drawn to that- 'Wow. He really wants me to come here,'" says Matthews. "It made me feel definitely this is where I wanted to be."

Matthews shares Terry's appreciation for McLean's personal approach. "These years in a young man's life are very formative, and he helped me form who I am, not just as a musician but as a person," he says. "Let's just say that I wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't known Jackie McLean."

McLean eventually became a "father figure" for Matthews, inviting the young man into his home. The two had a falling out but found a way to resolve their differences and rebuild their friendship, Matthews says.

In 1970, the same year that McLean began teaching at Hartt, he and his wife, Dollie, established The Artists Collective, Inc., a cultural center that serves inner-city youth, in Hartford. "I know that Jackie credits Dollie for a lot of achievements. She's also a very strong worker, a hard worker, and a creative person," Terry says. "She has been supportive of him and his career."

"He's great. He's a very warm person," Matthews says. "There's a presence about him. You can tell when you're in his presence that there's a man there with a lot to offer."