Ken Burns said that the three things most unique to the American culture are the Declaration of Independence, baseball, and jazz music.

Robert Baca, associate professor of trumpet and director of jazz studies, has been immersed in the culture of jazz for more than 20 years. His efforts at UW-Eau Claire have helped him get named to the executive board of the International Association of Jazz Education (IAJE).

After being nominated for the position in April, Baca was named the U.S. Representative to the IAJE Executive Board.

“I’m very excited about it,” Baca said. “I was surprised to be nominated, and even more surprised when I got the position.”

As a member of the executive board, Baca said he hopes to allow college students get an education in jazz music while in college.

“Many people graduate from college with a music education degree without having participated in a jazz ensemble,” Baca said. “They gain a teaching position where they will be teaching a jazz ensemble with no jazz experience.”

Baca said the goal of the IAJE is to help the great jazz musicians spread their knowledge to the masses.

“Playing a jazz solo is like being a great orator,” he said. “You couldn’t go to a great orator after a speech and ask them what they were thinking at a specific time during the speech.

“We want to teach the great improvisers to be able to answer those questions,” Baca said.

With more than two decades in experience with jazz, Baca knows how to spread the message.

Eau Claire’s Jazz Ensemble has gained a national reputation, despite the fact that Eau Claire does not have a jazz studies major.

“(Baca) is an extraordinary individual,” said Richard Boyum, counseling psychologist who has been involved with the jazz program. “He is truly an educator, not just a teacher. He is authoritative, not authoritarian.”

Boyum said one of Baca’s strengths was that he’s very good at listening to the students studying jazz, saying that while he teaches the students, the students also teach him.

“In jazz, you have to be willing to be a leader,” Boyum said. “But he’s also good at following and letting the musicians make the decisions.”

Among the people that Baca will be working with on the executive board is president David Baker, a former touring jazz performer who teaches at Indiana University.

Baca, who studied under Baker at Indiana, said that Baker is the first well-known jazz player to be the president of the IAJE executive board.

“We know all the jazz players will listen to him,” Baca said, “and all the educators will listen to him, as well.”

After graduating from Indiana, Baca toured with bands and performers like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. After playing professionally for a while in Indianapolis, Baca came to Eau Claire in 1986.

Since then, Baca has been teaching jazz, helping the Eau Claire jazz program grow into national prominence, and in that time, he hasn’t lost his enthusiasm.

“When he talks about jazz, he’s like a kid in a candy shop,” Boyum said. “He knows he’s immersed in one of the great American cultures, and he thinks he’s one of the luckiest people on the face of the planet to be able to share this culture.”