If you are a student looking to fulfill an EE “experiential education” class, the UNC summer jazz workshop is the way to go. As someone who has actually taken this workshop twice (you can take it for repeat credit!) I highly recommend. Not only do you learn and appreciate jazz, you also complete 3 credit hours in 5 days. That combination is hard to beat.
2. Jazz history is American history.
If you learned one thing in the jazz history portion of the workshop, it is that jazz is a uniquely American art form. With its roots in the early 20th century, jazz has evolved and changed greatly through the years. However, one thing has endured: a swingin’ feel and improvisation. This workshop also shows that jazz is still drawing crowds and new generations of players.
3. Coffee
While this course may only be one week, its packed with interesting classes, jam sessions and live performances. You may find yourself dabbling on Franklin street in search for the sweet nectar of caffeine. Located close to the Kenan music building, Carolina Coffee Shop’s 1922 is the place to go. With great coffee, a bright setting and free refills, check out this local Chapel Hill coffee shop.
4. Live music
After classes, combos and jam sessions, each day ends in the auditorium. Around 7 p.m., the lights dim, and faculty, world-renowned musicians and guest artists all play outstanding pieces of music. If you are like me and listen to jazz music sparingly if at all, I highly recommend seeing it played live. While a record is nice, it hides impromptu solos and nuanced expressions found only in a live setting.
Dan Davis — “Dan the man” — is a beloved UNC professor and music teacher. For this year’s 2023 Summer Jazz Workshop, Davis teaches jazz history while also working with drum clinics and preforming during the nightly shows.
Last night’s concert was amazing, when did you begin playing with your hands?
When I was a kid, the first person I saw do it was John Bonhman. The first time I saw somebody do that was Led Zeppelin. But a lot of jazz drummers do it. The reason I do it, last year Kate McGarry asked me to do it for a particular song. This year, a bunch of students were saying “are you going to play with your hands again, are you going to play with your hands again” so I felt a little bit obligated.
What drew you to music?
When I was growing up, my mother was a church choir director, and I was always around music. Music was in my home, my mother was a piano and voice teacher, so every afternoon after school I would hear lessons. Music was everywhere. I was a child of the radio of the 1970s. I was really into band. Once I was in 7th grade, I played in the school band. In high school, I played in a rock band, and then when It came time to go to school, it seemed like a natural to go to music school for music education and percussion.
Notable influences?
Certainly growing up, my parents and my close friends in band. All of my teachers, Harold Jones at ECU, all these great players. Of course, all of my colleagues here at UNC are just wonderful.
Do you share your music on social media?
I am very up on posting all my gigs and everything like that. Tonight my group is playing at the Berkeley cafe in Raleigh and then on Saturday my group is playing at Durty Bull Brewery over in Durham. All of that stuff is on social media. Social media has got positive things and negative things but I feel pretty good about this part of it. It’s got free publicity and advertising, which I use for gigs.
How did your journey with music and jazz lead to a life teaching?
Well, it was always something I have enjoyed. Even in high school, I had some students. At ECU, I got a music education degree so it was very much part of my training and background. Its fun for me and I enjoy working with students. I like to pay it forward and give back to the community and all. It’s just a really enjoyable and rewarding thing for me.
The lights dimmed as the performers walked casually onto the stage. Dr. Steven Anderson, the director of the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop introduced the members of the sextet.
Jason Fourman on bass
Rahsaan Barber on sax
Jerald Shynett on trombone
Kobie Watkins on drums
Al Strong on trumpet
With Anderson himself on piano, the ensemble carried all the musician talent needed to deliver an exhilarating and dynamic performance. The drums snapped to life as Watkins delivered a steady and intricate beat. Alongside Fourman’s bass and Anderson’s rhythm the backing sections provided steady support for the horns to paint beautiful strokes of melody and improvisation.
For those new to jazz like myself, the best way to describe Strong’s grammy award winning trumpet playing is its vocal qualities. Depending on the tune his playing would fluctuate between sweet and soft to raspy and bombastic.
I was surprised by the little subtleties of a live performance. The expressions on the musicians faces and the non verbal communication added a uniquely human layer to the experience. Additionally, as evidently clear in the last number, the audience interacted as well. Despite Al Strong singing “we’ve got the blues,” the night was an experience of joy.
“If people are passionate enough,
they are going to make it wherever they want to go.”
Rachel Therrien
The windows of a coffee shop separate us from the bustling life of Franklin Street. Rachel Therrien still smiling as her 2016 album Pensamiento: Proyecto Colombia plays over the shop’s stereo, I set my scripted questions aside. Therrien tells her story and captures the essence of jazz with ease and brevity.
Therrien, a Canadian-born musician, performs and teaches as a guest artist for the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop. Her story reflects a dominant theme articulated in the workshop’s classes and performances: Jazz is a musical and cultural conversation.
Pensamiento: Proyecto Colombia, Therrien’s 2016 album
Raised in the French-speaking region of Quebec, Therrien recalls an early love for music. While she recounts her formal musical education, she found her own among Quebec’s huge diaspora of West African community.
“I owe a lot to those cultures,” she says. “I learned how to improvise with them.” Unlike the notation and theory taught in a classroom, she says, “there are no charts, you learn by ear.” After a brief pause, she emphasizes, “They open with solos in every tune.”
Welcomed by the foreign community, Therrien faced challenges as a university student. The professors were excellent musicians, yet she notes that “they were not necessarily teachers.” They harped on how hard the career would be, how difficult it would be to make a living — she proved them wrong.
After two years of university, she left to study at the Instituto Supêrior de Arte in Havana. In Cuba, teachers make less than musicians — this means they really enjoy teaching. Therrien says with conviction: “If you are a teacher, if you are a real teacher, you are going to see the level of passion in your student.”
While no jazz musician myself, her passion for music radiated throughout our conversation and only increased as she explained the backstory of Pensamiento: Proyecto Colombia, the album playing in the background of the coffee shop.
Therrien’s instrument of choice, the trumpet
“What I wanted to do was an experiment putting Jazz musicians with Afro-Colombian musicians in a room, having a musical conversation” After touring in Colombia, she stayed behind to record her side project.
Starting with the rhythms she knew, Therrien also explore the two musical currents running in Colombia. The Atlantic coast region differed from the poorer, less exported Pacific coast style. After weeks of recruiting musicians with only a flip phone and a list of contacts, Therrien had 12 committed musicians: four from Columbia’s Pacific coast, four from the Atlantic coast, and four jazz players.
With a laugh, she describes how they managed to all cram into the tiny studio. The bass was in the closet, the marimba was in the office and one musician played while sitting on the toilet bowl.
I asked if she felt nervous about the project, if she felt nervous not knowing any of the musicians prior to the recording. She replied with a smile, “The process is beautiful, if it doesn’t work out — great.”
At this moment, Therrien touches upon something unique about jazz. When performing Jazz, the process is more than reading notes from a page. As Therrien notes, “Jazz comes from a philosophy.” It comes from people with “different backgrounds having a conversation together through improvisation.”
Students of jazz history in the UNC Summer Workshop learn that jazz is an American art form. While it’s important to know the origins of jazz, Therrien’s passion for the art looks forward to the future as well. “What I wanted to show is that jazz is not just the evolution of that American concept, it can happen again,” she says.
This week at the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop, it is happening again — thanks to international musicians like Rachel Therrien performing and teaching with UNC’s faculty and students.
Dr. Stephen Anderson, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor and Director of Jazz Studies
The night starts with Stephen Anderson locking eyes with the audience and ripping his mask off with a childish grin. This comedic bit sets the tone of the musical improvisation soon to follow. The lights dim and the band dives into a bombastic opening. After a few minutes of playing in unison, the Marimba player Juan Álamo, takes the lead with an invigorating solo. Veins pop from his neck and his face contorts with the beat. The other members follow suit.
The 360° Jazz Initiative, a faculty and student ensemble, kicks off the week-long UNC Summer Jazz Workshop. Beginning on June 20th, students and players from across North Carolina and the world convene. The glue that holds them together? The language they all speak? Jazz.
This language is best listened to live. The audience locks eyes on the musicians moving to the beat. The players’ faces are marked with expression.
While students study Jazz history and learn theory, the Jazz workshop looks to the future just as much as it learns from the past. On many occasions, the 360° Jazz initiative played contemporary pieces drawn from the arsenal of its homegrown talent. A showcase of young talent and new compositions increased the lively and engaging nature of the show. While Jazz is written in the history books, it is played, experienced, and evolving this week at the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop.
