IU Jazz Studies

We kicked off the fall 2024 semester with two awesome jam sessions to welcome our new students and reconnect with our returning ones!

We are thrilled to be bringing everyone together, create some amazing music, and build our community as we dive into this new semester.

Here’s to an exciting year ahead filled with creativity, collaboration, and, of course, great music!

To FB musicians: tomorrow Friday July 19 from 2:00-3:00p EST, I will be giving a ZOOM mentor presentation for OPEN STUDIO. Special thanks to Geoffrey Keezer who invited me to give a presentation (see his outstanding OPEN STUDIO presentations). Tomorrow’s topic is:

“Pentatonics and Diminished Pentatonics: Patterns, Permutations and Application for All Jazz Improvising Musicians”

Hope to see you there. Here is a link to sign up:

Mentor Session: Pentatonics and Diminished Pentatonics - Open Studio Back to calendar Mentor Session: Pentatonics and Diminished Pentatonics with Luke Gillespie Mentor Sessions Live session will start Jul 19th, 2024 1:00 PM GMT -5 You need to be Open Studio member to attend this session. Join now

We are ever grateful for the love and support Lida Baker has given to IU Jazz students and faculty for so many years. What a joy it was to have her visit the IU JSOM Summer Jazz Workshop in June! 

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We’re excited to announce that our faculty member, Brent Wallarab, has been named a voting member of the Recording Academy! This means he will help decide the winners of the Grammy Awards.

Join us in congratulating Brent on this prestigious honor!👏

Congrats to our faculty member, Greg Ward, for topping the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Sax list!

Greg will also be featured in the prestigious DownBeat Blindfold Test. We’re incredibly proud of his achievements!

And the Emmy Award goes to Wes Montgomery at 100: A 100th Birthday Tribute!

Congratulations to IU Jazz faculty Dave Stryker (featured guitar soloist), Brent Wallarab (musical director, arranger, conductor), and Sean Dobbins (drums) along with special guest Bobby Floyd (organ) and Brent Wallarab’s IU Jazz Ensemble plus strings from the Jacobs School of Music. Congratulations and thank you to WTIU Producer Todd Gould for the opportunity and his excellent work on this production. You can stream it on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/wes-montgomery-at-100-ykxfat/
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

We are grateful for the opportunity to host Rodney Whitaker this past week ✨

Happy for our students to to be inspired by jazz legends who are shaping American music.

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It’s almost time for our ANNUAL

✨ JAZZ CELEBRATION ✨

We are incredibly excited to groove with all of you at our annual Jazz Celebration!

LAST CALL to join us for a sensational showcase of Jacobs Jazz Studies’ finest students and faculty, alongside special guest performances you won’t want to miss 👀👀👀

🪐Come create lasting memories of jazz under the Eclipse at Buskirk-Chumley Theater at 7:30 PM featuring the Natalie Boeyink Jazz Ensemble and Plummer Jazz Group directed by Greg Ward with special guest, Steven Feifke!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Link to event: https://events.iu.edu/.../1100102-jazz-the-bct-natalie...

Celebrating Women’s Month and the Total Eclipse! 🌒

Join us for two incredible shows featuring Natalie Boeyink and a Celestial Celebration in Jazz. Mark your calendars for a musical journey you won’t want to miss!

Tuesday, March 19 Hot Tuesdays 🔥
Jazz Combos 🔮 Featuring: Luke Gillespie Group & Natalie Boeyink Group  8:30 p.m 📍 Ford-Crawford Hall

Monday, April 8 Jazz @ the BCT 🔮
“A Celestial Celebration”
Featuring: Natalie Boeyink Jazz Ensemble and Plummer Jazz Group (Greg Ward, director) with guest artist Steven Feifke
7:30 p.m📍 Buskirk-Chumley Theatre

Let’s come together to celebrate the brilliance of women in jazz and savor the total eclipse with this extraordinary talent. ✨ Let’s make these nights unforgettable!

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🎉 Exciting New! Dave Stryker’s latest album “Groove Street” just hit the 🔝 spot on the Jazz Week Radio Chart! Thanks for the love and support that brought us to this milestone!

Join us tonight at 08:30 PM in Ford Hall for Dave Stryker’s Combo Show! 🌟 Experience the magic live and feel the rhythm that has captured jazz enthusiasts’ hearts. 🎵

Your support means the world! See you there! 🚀
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P.S. This marks the start of four weeks of combo shows – don’t miss out on the musical journey!

Get ready for a month filled with jazz vibes!
Join us in our upcoming events and let the music take you on a journey. 🎺

Keep an eye out for the vault and the block house, off-campus venues that will be hosting some unforgettable jazz experiences featuring our very own students & staff.

See you there!

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Jazz at The Vault Pub this Thursday features The Dionysians: Joe Friedman & Friends with Joe Friedman, trumpet, John Layton & Takoda Collins, saxophones, Nate Sorrentino, piano, Nolan Phillips, bass, Tate Sherman, drums.
Thursday, 7:30-5:30 pm Come on out!

No Cover, All Ages. Indiana Memorial Union.
DIRECTIONS:
Park in the IMU lot in front. Bring your parking ticket to be validated.
From the hotel lobby, go up one floor to the Mezzanine level (M). Walk past the Frangipani Room, Sugar and Spice, and the IU Bookstore. After passing the cafeteria on your right, there is an elevator on your right with a sign for The Vault. Take the elevator down one floor. Exit the elevator to the right to enter The Vault Pub.

This Thursday at The Vault Pub, Jake Lee demonstrates his unique talents on bass AND trumpet! The first set will be the Jake Lee Quartet with Sehyun Paik, voice, Abhik Mazumder, piano, Tate Sherman, drums. The second set will be Jake Lee, trumpet, Willie Bays, alto saxophone, Takoda Collins, tenor saxophone, Abhik Mazumder, piano, Alex Hoberty, bass, and Francis Bassett-Dilley, drums.
5:30-7:30 pm, No Cover, All Ages. Indiana Memorial Union.

DIRECTIONS:
Park in the IMU lot in front. Bring your parking ticket to be validated.
From the hotel lobby, go up one floor to the Mezzanine level (M). Walk past the Frangipani Room, Sugar and Spice, and the IU Bookstore. After passing the cafeteria on your right, there is an elevator on your right with a sign for The Vault. Take the elevator down one floor. Exit the elevator to the right to enter The Vault Pub.

Monday night! Virtuoso trombonist Angel Subero presents The Trombone in Latin Jazz at 8:30 pm in Ford Hall accompanied by the Latin Jazz Ensemble Rhythm Section and a trombone ensemble with Jerrell Charleston, Zach Hood, Vick Luna, Alden Ruth, and Owen Riordan. Come out for some great Latin Jazz!

Angel Subero will be performing again on Monday, January 29th at 8:30pm in Ford-Crawford Hall, Jacobs School of Music!

Guest/Student Recital – Angel Subero, jazz bass trombone
Featuring Jacobs trombone students and student performers from the Latin Jazz Ensemble

Music by Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, and Mario Bauzá

We hope to see you there!

This Thursday at The Vault Pub in the Indiana Memorial Union:
The Golden Ratio. 5:30-7:00 pm. No cover, All ages. Directions below. We're ending a little early so everyone can go hear Branford Marsalis at The Auditorium at 7:30 pm!

Ben Goldstein, tenor saxophone
Nadia Reist, trumpet
Nate Sorrentino, piano
Nolan Phillips, bass
Jackson Foerster, drums

DIRECTIONS:
Park in the IMU lot in front. Bring your parking ticket to be validated.
From the hotel lobby, go up one floor to the Mezzanine level (M). Walk past the Frangipani Room, Sugar and Spice, and the IU Bookstore. After passing the cafeteria on your right, there is an elevator on your right with a sign for The Vault. Take the elevator down one floor. Exit the elevator to the right to enter The Vault Pub.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of legendary jazz educator and saxophonist Jerry Coker this past Sunday (January 14) at the age of 91. Jerry was an alum and former faculty member of the IU Jacobs School of Music.
Jerry was born in South Bend, Indiana. Both of his parents were jazz musicians; his father played saxophone and his mother played piano. Jerry started as a student at the IU School of Music in 1950 alongside David Baker and Buddy Baker. All three would go on to become highly influential jazz educators. Jerry left school to join the Woody Herman band in 1953. In 1955, He recorded an album called Modern Music from Indiana University with his brother Jack on piano. After touring with Stan Kenton and earning his bachelor's and master's degree at Sam Houston State University, where he was also on faculty, Jerry returned to IU to start a doctoral degree in woodwinds. He joined the IU faculty in 1965, with the departure of Buddy Baker for Colorado. Under Jerry's direction, the Indiana University Jazz Ensemble won first place at the 1965 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival and was invited on a U.S. State Department sponsored tour of the Near East and South Asia that lasted from January to June 1966. Upon completion of the tour, Jerry was hired by the University of Miami, where he founded the Studio Music and Jazz program. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee where he also founded the Department of Studio Music and Jazz. Jerry authored or co-authored dozens of influential books on jazz and taught at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops for over 40 years. His teaching has influenced thousands of students of jazz.

The accompanying photo shows the IU Jazz Ensemble during their Near East & South Asia tour with Jerry on the right and trumpeter Randy Brecker on the left. The saxophonists from right to left are Whit Sidener (who went on to chair the Studio Music and Jazz program at the University of Miami after Jerry left), Carl Atkins (who went on to be the founding chair of the New England Conservatory's Afro-American Music and Jazz Department), Jerry Greene, Pat Mancino, and to Randy's left is Gary Campbell, who went on to teach at University of Miami and Florida International University. The trumpet section, in addition to Randy Brecker was Larry Wiseman (lead), Chris Gallaher, and Craig Andrews, trombones: Brian Martz, Andrew McDonald, and Arthur Moore. Don Harry (who went on to teach at the Eastman School of Music) was on tuba, and Paul Navarro and Mark Williamson played French horn. The rhythm section was David Lahm, piano, Gary Smart, piano (who went on to teach at the University of North Florida), Brent McKesson, bass, Stan Gage, drums.

New venue! Starting this week, there is live jazz at The Vault Pub in the Indiana Memorial Union, Thursdays, 5:30-7:30 pm. All ages, no cover. Come out this Thursday, January 18, to hear Sam Butler and Changing of the Guard featuring Sam on trumpet, Ethan Krodel, tenor saxophone, Alex Hurvitz, piano, Nolan Phillips, bass, and Joe Lorenz. drums.

DIRECTIONS:
Park in the IMU lot in front. Bring your parking ticket to be validated.
From the hotel lobby, go up one floor to the Mezzanine level (M). Walk past the Frangipani Room, Sugar and Spice, and the IU Bookstore. After passing the cafeteria on your right, there is an elevator on your right with a sign for The Vault. Take the elevator down one floor. Exit the elevator to the right to enter The Vault.

We were saddened to hear this week that trombonist and pioneering jazz educator Buddy Baker passed away last Sunday at the age of 91. Buddy was the first person to teach jazz on the faculty of Indiana University, leading a jazz ensemble from 1959-1965. Buddy was inducted into the IU Jazz Alumni Hall of Fame in 2016.

Buddy Baker was from Alexandria, Indiana (northeast of Indianapolis). He attended Indiana University, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1954 and a Master of Music degree in 1959. In the early years of his career, he toured with the jazz orchestras of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman.

Buddy Baker was hired by Dean Wilfred Bain to establish jazz course offerings, which included courses taught by Roger Pemberton. Buddy relocated to Colorado in 1965 and was subsequently hired at the University of Northern Colorado where he taught trombone and started the jazz studies program. He continued to have an impactful career, serving as president of the International Trombone Association 1976-78, performing in the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra for 33 years and as a member of the Rich Matteson/Harvey Phillips Tubajazz Consort, and publishing books such as The Buddy Baker Tenor Trombone Method and The Buddy Baker Tenor Trombone Handbook. He retired from the University of Northern Colorado in 1998. Buddy’s teaching and artistry inspired and generations of musicians.

Photos: Buddy Baker, Buddy leading the IU Jazz Ensemble at the 1964 Notre Dame Jazz Festival, Buddy with Dean Gwyn Richards and Jazz Department Chair Tom Walsh receiving the IU Jazz Alumni Hall of Fame award.

Thank you to Fabian Almazan for an enlightening and inspiring visit to the IU Jacobs School of Music and a great performance with the Plummer Jazz Quartet at the Orbit Room!

This Friday at noon please us for the last new faculty lunch of the semester! We are excited to be chatting with the lovely Natalie Boeyink – jazz bassist and educator extraordinaire!
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Indiana University Jacobs School of Music IU Jazz Studies

Congratulations to IU Jazz Professor Brent Wallarab, IU Audio Professor Jake Belser, and the entire Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra! The Association of German Record Critics (Schallplattenkritik) selected The Gennett Suite as the Best New Release of the fourth quarter of 2023!