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2012 international Jazz Camp guide
Exceptional First
the university of North Texas continues its legacy of providing
top-notch workshops and pro-quality faculty
As the first university in the United States to offer a jazz program
degree, the University of North Texas (UNT) got a head
start on much of its competition, establishing an early reputation
for academic excellence and becoming one of the jazz scene’s
most famed and fertile talent incubators.
UNT is known for its sterling music programs, which over the
years have instilled American jazz into thousands of graduates. The
university is probably best known for its One O’Clock Lab Band, a
long-running aggregation that has recorded 60 albums and received
multiple Grammy nominations while compiling an illustrious litany
of alumni. Former members of the Lab Band include Jimmy Giuffre,
Herb Ellis, Lyle Mays, Billy Harper, Marc Johnson, Bob Belden and
Bill Evans.
But the One O’Clock Lab Band is just a small part of the UNT
jazz program that for decades has drawn students to its campus,
which is located just 40 miles north of Dallas. The legendary Leon
Breeden, an early inductee into the International Association for
Jazz Education (IAJE) Hall of Fame, was instrumental in developing
UNT’s tradition of teaching jazz skills that could be successfully carried
from the classroom into the professional music world. His endur-
Lynn Seaton Double Bass Workshop at the University of North Texas
98 DOWNBEAT MARCH 2012