Palm Coast Jazz Hero
Muriel McCoy is a true Jazz Hero. For more than 35 years, the president and co-founder of the North East Florida Jazz Association (NEFJA) has worked tirelessly to keep jazz alive in Northeast Florida. Her story is intriguing.
Back “in the day” when most young ladies were being courted with candy or flowers from their suitors, Muriel’s future husband Eugene (Jeep) McCoy brought her jazz records. “I think Jeep loved the fact that I had a record player — he didn’t — as much as he loved me,” McCoy laughs. Be that as it may, Jeep provided Muriel, while they were young in New York City, with an introduction to the music that changed her life.
“He’d bring the latest 45 rpm records by Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and others. We’d listen to them for hours and when we weren’t listening to records, we’d go see live jazz at clubs in Greenwich Village, Harlem, wherever. Jazz was his passion and it soon became mine,” she explains. Appropriately, Jeep proposed to Muriel on the A-Train on their way back home from an evening of jazz.
The McCoys married in 1956 and their love affair with jazz continued. In 1985 they retired, moving from Teaneck, New Jersey to Palm Coast, Florida. They loved their new hometown, with one huge exception. Unlike the never-ending variety of jazz venues they’d enjoyed from their northern digs, their new paradise was a cultural desert when it came to being able to catch live jazz. They’d been accustomed to going into New York City at the drop of a hat to listen to music in person. Now there was nothing nearby.
Craving live jazz, they figured other people in their new area might be feeling the same way. The McCoys sent out a letter (this was before email or texts!) to local businesses and organizations inviting music aficionados to a meeting in their home to determine if there was enough interest in jazz to form a jazz lovers’ group. About 40 people showed up that evening and the North East Florida Jazz Association (NEFJA) was conceived.
NEFJA’s mission was simple, but two-fold: To perpetuate America’s indigenous music genre by presenting concerts featuring world-class musicians at affordable prices for local audiences, and to give scholarships to talented young Jazz students. In 1987, NEFJA was awarded its 501 (c) 3 designation as a non-profit organization. Ever since the group has worked diligently to keep jazz alive in Northeast Florida.
Jeep McCoy served as NEFJA’s president until his sudden death in 2002. When no one else volunteered to head up the organization, Muriel stepped up to keep his dream — the dream of their group — real. She has now served as president for 20 years. At 92, she organizes and facilitates meetings and events, pounds the street promoting NEFJA, motivates the volunteer membership and is constantly coming up with new and creative ways to fulfill NEFJA’s mission.
To date, NEFJA has presented more than 100 live performances featuring artists including Houston Person, Vincent Herring, Jeremy Pelt, Doug Carn, Marcus Roberts and Jason Marsalis. It has awarded 57 scholarships to talented students enrolled in a jazz studies program at a Florida college or university. A few years ago, NEFJA extended its scholarship program to include support for promising local high school students to attend jazz camps.
Under President McCoy’s leadership, NEFJA continues to evolve. Despite not being able to meet in person or host live concerts for the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has remained true to its mission, with newer members helping out in a technological environment that sometimes strikes Muriel and others of the founders as intimidating.
NEFJA meetings have been via Zoom. A new project was begun of video interviews with former scholarship winners, creating a permanent record of their stories that validates how NEFJA helped inspire them, to be featured on a redesigned NEFJA website. The enforced hibernation was an opportunity for NEFJA to look ahead and gear up for the rest of the 21st century. Happily, live events resumed in October 2021, with Nat Adderley, Jr. as the performance headliner. Muriel is proud of what the group has achieved thus far and excited about prospects for the future.
“There’s a new sense of urgency and excitement,” she’s said. “It keeps me going.” Crediting NEFJA’s ongoing success to its devoted volunteers, she’s especially pleased that not only are her son and granddaughters becoming actively involved in the organization but the children of other group members, too.
“We have created a legacy and these young people are the ones who will keep it going,” Jazz Hero Muriel McCoy says with a smile. “The best is yet to come.” — Barbara Salter
