It's a topic that has generated much debate over the years.
White musicians are more divided on the question.
Some argue that when race is such a major issue in American society, it cannot help but be an issue in this most American form of music. An Opportunity to Bring More People to Jazz Spencer is a jazz musician and professor of music at San Francisco State University, where she founded the jazz studies undergraduate degree program in 1990. She doesn't look like an academic, but that was the word she would use several times during the interview to describe herself. Her casual style and the twinkle in her eye make her appear younger than her extensive resum would suggest. But she was clearly enthusiastic about it.