Peers, friends and former students remembered Leon Breeden as a man who gave as much to the jazz classroom as he did to his principal instrument, the clarinet. But mostly, they remembered him as the man who graded the road for university-level jazz studies. His most-inspired students later paved that road.

Leon Breeden

Breeden, former director of the University of North Texas’ jazz program, died Wednesday at 88.

“I met Mr. Breeden first, I think, in 1960,” said UNT music professor and former Breeden student Ed Soph. “I came to school thanks to him, in 1963.”

Soph remembers the tall, wavy-haired teacher approaching him at a music festival in Houston, where Soph was living at the time. Soph was playing drums in the festival.

Soph said he already knew about the music school in Denton when Breeden asked him if he’d thought about college.

“He told me he wanted me to think about coming to North Texas. He didn’t have to twist my arm very hard,” Soph said.

Leon Breeden inherited the jazz studies program from Gene Hall in 1959, when the UNT music school deferred its respect to classical forms.

“Leon had to fight for everything he got for the band,” said jazz trumpet virtuoso Marvin Stamm, who played in the One O’clock Lab Band early in Breeden’s tenure. “At that time, the music school was really more about training classical orchestral musicians. Jazz wasn’t seen as being important. One of the things that was so important to this program, and Leon is really responsible, was the administration of the program. He had to get out and get the band playing all over the world. He was responsible for all the notoriety the band got.”

Breeden took the jazz studies program reins from Hall in 1959. He stepped down as the leader of the internationally recognized One O’clock Lab Band in 1981, and retired in 1984. He spent his career grooming some of the best jazz musicians making music today.

John Murphy, chairman of the UNT Division of Jazz Studies and a former student, said Breeden’s work is likely the reason the university is recognized as widely as it is.

“He established a national and international reputation for quality for the One O’clock Lab Band at a time when awareness of the University of North Texas was limited outside the North Texas region,” he said. “He established the practice of balancing the study of the great jazz of the past with the encouragement of student composers, arrangers and soloists.”

Soph said that Breeden, in his own mild-mannered way, was a great publicist.

“In the formative years, the jazz program was a one-man program,” Soph said. “Can you imagine one man setting up an appearance at the White House today? When the lab band played for [President Lyndon] Johnson at the White House in 1967, it really showed that what was happening was important. What he did in making [jazz] a part of music education is mind-boggling.”

Herbert Holl, executive director of the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts, met Breeden when Holl was the executive director of the Greater Denton Arts Council. Holl organized an annual concert featuring council members in 2000 called “Arts in Our Backyard,” and invited Breeden to perform at the inaugural event.

“At the time, the point of the event was to demonstrate that not only did GDAC have a lot of supporters, but among the supporters there were all these people who were accomplished amateurs or world-class performers. It was a way of getting a lot of Denton treasures in one place. Leon was one of those treasures.”

Without hesitation, Breeden came out of retirement for the performance, Holl recalled, noting that the musician maintained his chops.

“I don’t know that it was stressful for him, but he hadn’t been playing regularly,” Holl said. “I think it represented an effort on his part.”

But Breeden made it look effortless, playing passages from some of his favorite classical and jazz pieces.

“He was just in his element. He was talking to people, he was talking about music, and he had us eating out of his hand,” Holl said.

Soph said Breeden had a distinct teaching style. He didn’t bring hard-nosed dogmas about jazz to the podium. He let his band find inspiration by sweating through the solos, and swinging as hard as it could. The band was made up of gifted emerging players and guys who’d already been on the road.

“He was not one to discourage us from trying new things,” Soph said. “And if we failed at what we tried to do — whether it was a composition or an arrangement — if we failed, we figured out how to make it work together. He wasn’t a dictatorial kind of teacher. If you weren’t playing up to his standard, he would let you know in a very kind way.”

Murphy said the bandleader balanced jazz history with the emerging jazz, and was sensitive to the time it took to develop the award-winning program.

“He was a thoroughly organized teacher. I still have the syllabus,” he said. “I remember one occasion in which he talked about comments he received from students from a suggestion box or questionnaire. One of the questions was: ‘Who is Leon Breeden?’ He told us that this concerned him because he wanted the students to know him and know that he cared about each student, but sometimes his administrative duties prevented him from getting to know each student.”

Stamm said Breeden started him on a career that has satisfied Stamm’s ambition and his heart.

“Because of Leon Breeden, I was exposed to Stan Kenton, whose orchestra I joined right after I graduated. I was his trumpet soloist for years,” Stamm said. “Leon’s students are all over the world. He has a wonderful legacy.”

Funeral services for Breeden are scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at Denton Bible Church, 2300 E. University Drive. Contributions in his honor may be made to the Leon Breeden Music Scholarship or the Leon Breeden Jazz Trumpet Scholarship in care of the UNT College of Music Division of Jazz Studies, 1155 Union Circle No. 305040, Denton, TX 76203-5017.

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com .