The Spirit of Jazz & Democracy (SJD). SJD is a program of lectures, concerts, workshops, and masterclasses that highlight the congruency of jazz and democracy and focus on the role of improvisation and innovation in the expansion of freedom and the betterment of the human condition. At the center of the program are fully improvised concerts by master musicians Paul F. Murphy (drums) and Larry Willis (piano), with guest performances by poet laureate Jere Carroll and multi-instrumentalist Dominic Fragman. In Fall 2017, SJD was in residence at St. Mary's College of Maryland. The school recognized the events of the residency as historic. Oxford University Press' Grove Music Dictionary has noted the music as a new direction in jazz and art.