More than a place to savor a cup of joe, the round wooden tables in Greensboro’s Coffee at the Summit serve as the birth site of an organization that is inspiring children and linking generations.

In April 2006, the shop’s owner, Stan Montgomery, and four new acquaintances sat at these tables and found they shared a love of jazz music. They also similarly saw themselves as “a connecting generation” that needed to link the worlds of their parents and their children, Montgomery says.

By the time the men’s conversation ended, the seeds of the Triad Youth Jazz Society had been planted. In the past year and a half, the society has offered children ages 8 to 17 a unique learning opportunity.

As its name implies, music is an important part of the nonprofit society’s mission. Its 18 current members receive weekly lessons, and most are part of its performing arm, Junior Jazz and Java.

Michael Thompson, one of the society’s founders and its director of program development, says the group has performed across the Triad, including the 2007 unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative Ella Fitzgerald stamp.

But the society’s vision is about more than music. Montgomery, who serves as its president, says members frequently meet to learn life lessons like oral communication skills. Thompson also notes that the society requires active parental involvement. In fact, both he and Montgomery have children who participate in the organization.

Such a focus has yielded notable rewards. Leaders say participation has boosted children’s grades in school and their self-esteem. “To witness their growth from day one has been tremendous,” Thompson says. “The nutshell has just opened up, and when a nutshell opens up, you see the finished product, good or bad.” He pauses and smiles before adding that, in the case of jazz society members, the finished product has been a very good one.

FEBRUARY 3, 1983

Henry E. Frye became the first African-American justice on the N.C. Supreme Court