2022 Jazz 75th Anniversary Reunion Program

75 TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION

OCTOBER 20-22, 2022 | UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS CAMPUS | DENTON, TEXAS

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Please consider a donation to the Jazz Legacy Fund in honor

of our 75th anniversary of North Texas Jazz Studies!

UNT JAZZ LEGACY FUND

In memory of our friends and colleagues

that passed during the past 75 years

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Your donation can empower our students through the funding of

scholarships, wellness support and performance opportunities.

Any gift can make an impact in support of their education.

HELP US CONTINUE THE LEGACY.

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INTRODUCTION LETTERS

GERARD

HUDSPETH

Mayor, City of Denton

Greetings

and welcome

back to Denton!

On behalf of the City, it’s my

pleasure to welcome you.

It may have changed since you

last visited.

When the Jazz Studies

degree began at North Texas

State Teachers College, 21,000

people called Denton home.

That number now approaches

140,000. Denton County’s

population of about 906,000

is included in the Dallas Fort

Worth metroplex – the fourth

largest metropolitan area with

a population approaching 8

million residents. The numbers

themselves are not important

except that they indicate vibrant

communities where people

want to live, work, study and

where opportunities abound

for musicians to perform and

where music lovers can include

themselves in the audience.

What has not changed about

Denton is that everywhere

you look, you see markers of

the influence of music from

the University of North Texas

College of Music. Nearly every

day Dentonites witness alumni,

students, faculty and staff of

UNT Jazz performing in a club or

festival or on a campus stage.

Denton ranked 1st in the nation

as a best college town for music

majors by MusicSchoolCentral.

com.

From its beginnings on the

Denton Square 131 years ago

to another year of record

attendance of more than 44,500,

music from the University

of North Texas continues to

be a pillar of our community

showcasing young (and not so

young) musicians across the City

and world.

We are often ranked highly

where quality of life is indicated,

and proudly so - but - it’s the

people that make it a great

place.

Please come back often.

Everyone is welcome.

Sincerely,

Gerard Hudspeth

Mayor, City of Denton

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University of North Texas College of Music

NEAL J.

SMATRESK

President,

University of North Texas

Dear Alumni,

It is my sincere honor to

welcome you back to campus

for the University of North Texas

College of Music Jazz Studies

75th Anniversary reunion.

Our commitment to College of

Music facilities over the previous

five years continues with

renovation to Lab West in the

amount of $2.5 million beginning

Summer 2023 and renovation

and expansion of the Möller pipe

organ in the Main Auditorium.

Additional improvements are on

the horizon for music facilities as

we continually work to provide

a remarkable experience for

every student by providing

state of the art programs and

educational spaces.

The College of Music and the

Jazz Studies program at UNT

elevate the University’s global

reputation. While the University

leadership values rankings,

they are merely external

recognitions of what we

already know – that our many

successes and reputation

directly correlate to generations

of tireless work of alumni,

students, faculty and staff.

The University continues to

defy national trends as our

Denton campus set yet another

enrollment record for Fall 2022

at 44,532. An increase of 5.6%.

It is thrilling that UNT

continues to be the university of

choice for more students than

ever before, and UNT remains

one of the top producers in

awarding degrees in the North

Texas region, which speaks

to our desire to truly help our

students be successful. No

other university in the region

does more than UNT to drive

Texas’ progress.

Be sure to walk our beautiful

campus to see new buildings

and public spaces and venture

off campus to familiar spots you

frequented “back in the day.”

Please know we value your

contributions past and present in

building the extraordinary legacy

that is Jazz at UNT.

Enjoy your visit and return

soon.

GO MEAN GREEN!


Sincerely,

Neal J. Smatresk

President, University of North Texas

Jazz 75th Anniversary Reunion

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JOHN W.

RICHMOND

Professor and Dean,

UNT College of Music

Dear friends

and Colleagues,

I am so delighted to join the

chorus of congratulations to our

Division of Jazz Studies as we

conclude a year-long celebration

of the 75th Anniversary of Jazz

Studies at UNT. What a legacymaking

history our colleagues

and their predecessors have

produced, from international

tours to award-winning

recordings to broadcasts around

the world to publications in the

most prestigious venues and on

an on! Jazz Studies at UNT has

become a signature program not

only of this College of Music but

of the entire University of North

Texas, as well. The evocation of

our university’s name routinely

prompts a recognition of music

generally and Jazz especially

all around the world. This is an

anniversary deserving of a yearlong

celebration and more!

The UNT leadership certainly

has chosen to lead by example

in this regard, committing some

$2.5 million in the renovation

of our “Lab West” facility. Plans

are nearing completion of that

renovation now, and you will see

artists’ conceptions of what a

huge impact this renovation will

be when completed in August

2023. This seems like another

great reason to return to campus

next year (and every year) to

see and hear what a huge

improvement that renovation will

bring about and discover what’s

new in Jazz at UNT!

This also is a time to

remember that we have a

sobering obligation to honor

our storied history by promising

an ever more accomplished

future for Jazz at UNT. Rest

assured that we are mindful

of that obligation and leaning

into it with our mission-driven

focus on diversity, excellence,

integrity, and imagination. Not

surprisingly, we will need your

help to reach our full potential,

and we know we can count on

you as we always have.

Thank you for being a part of

this joyous celebration.

Sincerely,

John Richmond

Professor & Dean of the UNT College of Music

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Dear friends,

Welcome to Denton and the 75th

Anniversary Celebration of North

Texas Jazz. This weekend is the

culmination of a year of celebrating

what the College of Music alums

helped build. Our students reap

the benefits of the College of

Music’s more than 15,000 alums as

we work to provide extraordinary

experiences for our students.

The Institution and its parts have

walked through extraordinary times

in its 131 years. For a significant

time (75 years), North Texas Jazz

has been a major player within

the University and, of course, the

College of Music. Therefore, I

urge you to sit back and enjoy

reading about the University of

North Texas Jazz history.

We have much to be proud

of, and while we recognize

ROBERT

PARTON

Chair, Division of

Jazz Studies

the well-documented lists of

awards, recognitions, and honors

received by students, ensembles,

and faculty, we are also mindful

of those who have not felt

welcome over time.

The University is now a

Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI)

and a Minority Serving Institution

(MSI) and is now a minoritymajority

campus. The College of

Music is working to reflect that

diversity. We aren’t there yet, but

we are continuing to improve

with intentional listening and

actions. Our Jazz and Gender

Equity Initiative and the Dean’s

Advisory Council on Diversity,

Equity, and Inclusion are two

ways we are working towards

these goals in the College. We

hope that future generations

of music students will see rich

diversity reflected in all the halls

of the nine buildings we occupy.

Through thirteen decades

of support by Texas Normal

College and Teacher Training

Institute; North Texas State

Teachers College; North Texas

State College; North Texas

State University, and the current

moniker, the College of Music

at the University of North Texas

is the largest public-university

music program in the United

States and one of the most

globally respected. North Texas

Jazz is a proud component of

that statement.

I hope you will keep us

updated about your activity

through submit.music.unt.edu.

It’s an honor and a privilege to

serve with many colleagues who

continually work to build upon the

rich jazz legacy left by so many for

more than seven decades.


Sincerely,

Robert Parton

Chair, Division of Jazz Studies


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10

Table of

CONTENTS

ANNIVERSARY

REUNION

OCTOBER 20-22, 2022

UNIVERSITY OF

NORTH TEXAS CAMPUS

DENTON, TEXAS

music.unt.edu

INTRODUCTION

4 Introductory Letters

8 Table of Contents

9 Reunion Weekend Schedule

HISTORY

10 75 Years of UNT Jazz

18 Reflections by John Murphy

ENSEMBLES

24 One O’Clock Lab Band®

26 Producing the One O’Clock

Lab Band® Album

27 Unsung Hero: Michael Vazquez

28 Two O’Clock Lab Band

30 Three O’Clock Lab Band

31 Jazz Strings Lab

32 Latin Jazz Lab Band

34 UNT Jazz Singers

36 Other Ensembles

49

26

DIVISION

38 Jazz Studies Faculty

49 Reflecting on a UNT Career

50 Jazz Studies Staff

CREDITS

52 Reunion Credits

53 University Credits

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Anniversary Reunion

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

OCTOBER 20–22, 2022

Thursday

Music Library Jazz 75th Anniversary Exhibit

Willis Library 4th Floor #430A

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

1506 W Highland St., Denton

UNT Jazz Alumni Welcome Reception

Spec’s Charitable Foundation Courtyard | Music Building

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

UNT College of Music, 415 S. Ave. C, Denton

UNT Jazz Alumni Jam Session

Steve’s Wine Bar

9:00 PM – Midnight

www.steveswinebar.com, 111 Industrial St., Denton

Friday

Music Library Jazz 75th Anniversary Exhibit

Willis Library 4th Floor #430A

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

1506 W Highland St., Denton

Lab West Rehearsals

Room 282 | Music Building

1:00 PM – 1980s Alumni Lab Band




Winspear Performance Hall Rehearsals

Murchison Performing Arts Center

1:30 PM – UNT Jazz Singers

2:30 PM – UNT Vocal Jazz Alumni Ensemble

3:15 PM – UNT Vocal Jazz Alumni Small Groups

Evening Performance


Winspear Performance Hall

6:00 PM – doors open

7:00 PM – Concert – UNT Jazz Singers, UNT Vocal Jazz Alumni

Small Groups and Large Ensemble, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s & 1980s

Alumni Lab Bands

UNT Jazz Alumni Reception and Jam Session

Steve’s Wine Bar



Saturday

UNT Jazz Alumni Brunch

Banquet Room, UNT Gateway Center

10:00 AM – Noon

801 North Texas Blvd., Denton

Jazz Sessions

Lab West, Room 282 | Music Building

1:30 PM – Zebras

2:15 PM – Jazz Gender Equity Initiative

2:30 PM – Composer/Arranger Forum

3:30 PM – Latin Jazz Lab

Spec’s Charitable Foundation Courtyard | Music Building

1:00 PM – Jazz Strings Lab

1:45 PM – Songwriters’ Showcase

2:45 PM – U-Tubes

3:30 PM – L-5 Guitar Ensemble

Winspear Performance Hall Rehearsals


1:00 PM – One O’Clock Lab Band ® w/Lab ‘75 alumni

2:15 PM – Check A/V for videos

3:00 PM – 1960s - 1970s Alumni Lab Band

Evening Performance


Winspear Performance Hall

6:00 PM – doors open

7:00 PM – Concert – North Texas Jazz @75 Years, 1960s–1970s

Alumni Lab Band, Lyle Mays Celebration, One O’Clock Lab Band ® ,

UNT Jazz Alumni Group Photo

UNT Jazz Alumni Reception and Jam Session

Steve’s Wine Bar



REUNION SCHEDULE

Jazz 75th Anniversary Reunion 9

75

Years

North Texas State College

Laboratory Dance Band,

comprised of 18 musicians,

performs on the Main

Auditorium stage in 1948

as Gene Hall conducts.

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Photos courtesy UNT Libraries Special Collections

of Jazz

North Texas

Written by John Murphy

Additional research & writing by Maristella Feustle

Edited by Kimberly Hannon Teal

SETTING

THE STAGE

Music instruction has

been a part of course

offerings at North Texas

since the institution was founded

in 1890, with a “Conservatory

Music Course” offered in Joshua

Chilton’s first bulletin. Several

overlapping factors encouraged

the growth of the program,

including Denton’s geographical

proximity to Dallas and Fort Worth,

as well as the rapid development

of mass media in popular culture

during North Texas’s early

decades: The new “normal”

college in Denton had the fortune

of growing up alongside the

advent of the phonograph record,

Edison cylinder, piano rolls, a

thriving sheet music industry and,

in the 1920s, the birth of radio.

Accordingly, music studies

at North Texas arose in an

environment characterized by

an ample supply and eager

demand for music, including

popular music and jazz. At the

same time, the growth of campus

culture in the early 1900s set

certain expectations of social

life at a university with demand

for events such as concerts

and dances. At North Texas,

the Saturday Night Stage Show

debuted in 1927 and became a

local institution for decades.

HISTORY OF UNT JAZZ

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‘Fessor Graham & the Aces perform at the Saturday Night

Stage Show in 1937. Professor Floyd Graham can be seen

standing to the left of the stage conducting his band.

Floyd Freeman Graham (1902 - 1974) was the

founder of the Saturday Night Stage Show. Born in

nearby Roanoke, Texas, Graham’s family moved to

Denton so that he and his brother, Wynne, could

attend school. Floyd Graham graduated from Denton High

School in 1919; in the 1920s he taught violin, appeared

in ensembles on Dallas and Fort Worth radio, and briefly

served as band director at Denton High. He joined the

faculty of North Texas in 1927 to teach band and orchestra,

having earned a teachers certificate from Chicago Musical

College. He continued his education with a bachelor of

music in violin from CMC in 1931 and a master of music

degree from the American Conservatory of Music in 1936.

While in Chicago, Graham studied with Leo Sowerby, and

he studied at Juilliard in the summer of 1939 with Ferde

Grofé and Fritz Mahler.

The combination of Floyd Graham’s entrepreneurial

spirit and musical achievements lent important context to

the Saturday Night Stage Show as an incubator of local

talent. Over the years, the show helped launch the careers

of Joan Blondell, Louise Tobin, Ann Sheridan, the Moon

Maids, and Pat Boone. The show’s Aces of Collegeland

stage band became the forerunner of the present-day Jazz

Studies program. It created a community of performers with

common interests, and the existence of that community

helped generate demand for expertise in jazz performance

and arranging. The stage show provided a venue for live

performance and also provided performance and income

opportunities during the Great Depression.

Even before the formal Jazz Studies program was

initiated, North Texas boasted a formidable assembly of

future jazz stars, including Herb Ellis, Jimmy Giuffre, Harry

Babasin, and Gene Roland, all of whom either graduated

or moved on around 1942. Many of them lived together

in a house that still stands at 204 Normal Street. Two

women’s vocal ensembles, the Moon Maids (first known

as the Swingtet, later joining Vaughn Monroe’s band),

and the Sunnysiders (first known as the Blue Notes, later

joining Sonny Dunham’s band), were also examples of early

excellence, featuring precise, close-harmony arrangements.

GENE HALL

AND THE EARLY DAYS

OF THE JAZZ PROGRAM

The opportunities to play and earn money at North Texas

attracted Gene Hall from Whitewright, Texas, as he was

scrambling in “panic bands” around 1934. He and some

other musicians had hoped to get into the fraternity circuit

for gigs. But Hall had trouble even scraping together the

$32 tuition and wound up touring with a band that got

stranded in Spain before eventually returning to Texas. Hall

later stated in an oral history that the demand for formal

training in arranging that arose out of the stage shows was

a prime motivator for curricular expansion, though one

collection donor has insisted to the Music Library that the

12 University of North Texas College of Music

LEFT: Under Gene Hall’s leadership, the “dance band”

program weathered criticism and resistance both on

campus and elsewhere. The band played frequently in the

area, including on local television, and some members on

the nationally-televised Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.

urgency for increased enrollment during the Depression

also made administrators more amenable to the idea of

recruiting students interested in jazz. However, Hall himself

recalled being assigned to patrol the practice room area to

ensure no one was playing jazz or popular music. In spite of

the apparent hostility to jazz, however, Hall said that School

of Music Dean Wilfred Conwell Bain essentially selected his

thesis topic for him: writing a method for teaching jazz on

the college level. Hall finished his thesis in 1944 as the jazz

community at North Texas continued to thrive.

Bain’s successor as dean of the School of Music, Walter

Hodgson, offered Hall a job at North Texas leading the stillincipient

Jazz Studies program. Through careful diplomacy,

Hall obtained approval from the curriculum committee for

a “dance band” program because, in his words, “jazz was

such a negative term in those days.” The ensemble’s name,

“Laboratory Dance Band,” is the origin of the famous “Lab

Bands” we know today.

While many sources continue to cite 1947 as the year our

program began, it started slightly earlier in the fall of 1946

before Hall began his full-time role. The fall 1946 academic

catalog lists Dance Band as a major. Alumnus William

Thomson, who played trumpet in the early bands and went

on to a distinguished academic career that included serving

as Dean of the Thornton School of Music at the University

of Southern California described that first fall semester in

an email to Dr. John Murphy in 2010 in an effort to correct

the historical record. Thomson explained that he turned

down an opportunity to join the Jimmy Dorsey band in

order to study in the brand-new program and played in the

Dance Band under the direction of composition graduate

student Charles Meeks. At the time, work commitments in

Fort Worth kept Gene Hall away from Denton except on

weekends, but Hall would take the helm in 1947. A photo

from the North Texas yearbook from 1947 shows Meeks in

front of the band and Thomson in the trumpet section.

Thomson’s clarification, combined with documentation

from the University Archives, have led to the revision

of Jazz Studies founding date despite prior anniversary

celebrations as recent as 1997 that asserted the 1947

start date.


As the new program picked up steam, Hall arranged

media appearances to raise its national profile. The end

of World War II and the educational benefits of the GI Bill

encouraged enrollment. Hall entered the Lab Band in the

Teenage DownBeat competition, and in 1957 he took the

5-Front Group, a scaled-down big band, to appear on

the “Tonight Show with Steve Allen”. That same year he

appeared on “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” on NBC with

a student Dixieland group, and he appeared with various

band members on the Dallas television station WFAA. Hall

organized a Festival of High School Stage Bands towards the

end of his tenure. The clinicians in 1958 were Marshall Brown,

a band director from Long Island; Chuck Suber, publisher of

DownBeat magazine; and jazz educator Ted Crager.

LEON BREEDEN,

THE PROGRAM’S

GROWTH AND RISE

TO PROMINENCE

Leon Breeden, clarinetist, arranger, and music educator,

succeeded Hall as director in 1959 and brought the

program even more visibility. Like Hall, he had to contend

with public opposition to the teaching of jazz in a public

university in a formerly Confederate state. Breeden

weathered hostility from within the School of Music, as well

as calls to his home phone number and admonitions that

his teaching jazz put him in peril of damnation. To counter

it, he insisted on strict standards of professionalism, with

an emphasis on sight-reading and stringent expectations

of his students with respect to grooming and behavior.

Breeden’s archive in the UNT Music Library preserves an

early document in which he even forbade goatees. In order

to understand Breeden’s concern for presenting the band

as a disciplined, professional group, it helps to have the

perspective of former students like guitarist Don Gililland:

I arrived at North Texas in Spring 1959, just hoping

I might get close enough to the Lab Band to listen

to it, never dreaming I could wind up sitting next to

those guys. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it

was arguably the most incredible period of my life.

When Leon Breeden assumed the directorship,

the young department was at a crossroads. There

was a long-standing stigma attached to jazz and its

artists—not altogether unwarranted—and the idea

of bringing that element into the college classroom

was not greeted warmly by many in the NT

hierarchy; I knew this from firsthand accounts from

friends and colleagues who were music majors with

contacts in all genres of the music school.

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What Mr. Breeden

brought to the table was

a legitimacy (not to imply

Gene Hall did not) that jazz

desperately needed to

survive over the next few

years. His credentials were

impeccable, even to the

most severe critics, and he

maintained a professional

rapport with fellow faculty

members that I could not

see existing had some of

the more flamboyant jazz

personalities of the day

been in that position.

Remarkably, while

navigating this

administrative tightrope,

Leon was still somehow

able to inspire a talented,

diverse group of guys to

produce some of the most

innovative music ever

created to date. Then, at

semester’s end, came the

festivals, and that same

bunch would pack those

egos 4-deep into whoever’s

car was running for the

drive to South Bend or Georgetown. Breeden’s

long-suffering ‘57 Chevy, hauling a trailer full of

instruments, was a familiar sight on the side of the

road.

No one could have envisioned that, only a few

years later, the band would be making those trips

on chartered flights. So many great things were to

come, due in no small part to the sacrifices made

during those formative years. I was gratified to

learn that, approaching his retirement, Leon finally

received some of the credit he so richly deserved.

Leon Breeden’s contributions to Jazz Studies at North

Texas and in colleges and universities both nationally and

internationally could fill a book, but several milestones are

particularly worth noting:

It was under Breeden that “North Texas State

Lab Band” became “The One O’Clock Lab Band”

and this marker of time became synonymous with

quality. His autobiography identifies April 11, 1961

as a pivotal moment, as it was the date of the first

full concert that identified the top band as the One

O’Clock Lab Band.

In the early 1960s, Stan

Kenton first heard the One

O’Clock Lab Band (or as

he called it, the Number

One Lab Band), and was

astounded. Breeden began a

Leon Breeden, February 1961.

It was under BREEDEN that

“North Texas State Lab Band” became

“THE ONE O’CLOCK LAB BAND”

collaboration with Stan Kenton

that included collaborating at

the Kenton Clinics and a Lab

Band appearance on ABC

television in 1966; this resulted

in Kenton’s donation of his

library to UNT and the naming

of Lab Band West, the One

O’Clock Lab Band’s rehearsal

hall that had been added in the

1978 expansion of the music

building, in Kenton’s honor.

Stage band contests had

brought Gene Hall and Leon

Breeden in contact with

judges who included Voice of

America’s jazz radio host Willis

Conover. By 1962, Conover

was broadcasting recordings

of the One O’Clock to a

global audience on his nightly

program.

In 1964, Breeden welcomed

the band’s first Black member,

Billy Harper, almost a decade

after the university began to

integrate. Harper graduated

in 1965 and hit the ground

running as a distinguished

leader and sideman, playing

with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Elvin Jones, the Thad

Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Max Roach’s quartet, and Gil

Evans in addition to leading his own projects.

The year 1967 brought a State Department-sponsored

tour of Mexico, followed by a summer trip to the White

House to perform with Duke Ellington and Stan Getz for

President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson and the king and

queen of Thailand. The late king Bhumibol Adulyadej was

himself a composer and jazz saxophonist, and he met the

band again on its tour of Thailand in 2004. Ellington was

also impressed by the encounter and was quoted as saying

that after hearing the “kids” of the One O’Clock Lab Band,

he was going to go home and call a five-hour rehearsal. In

addition, 1967 saw the inaugural album of the band’s annual

album series with Lab ’67.

The ascendancy of the band – and with it, the profile and

reputation of jazz education – continued into 1968. While

the band was reaching a new high point, Breeden pressed

on through a crushing low point in his life, grieving the

death of his 19-year-old son Danny in a hit-and-run accident

in February of 1968. The band grieved with Breeden and

supported him as they prepared for the Music Educators

National Conference in Seattle. There, the band played

for over 3,000 of the top music educators in the United

States. As they waited to

play, one band member

told Breeden: “Tell them

not to open that curtain.

We’re going to blow it open

in memory of your son

Danny!” Indeed, the band

14


brought the house down, and

gave the first encore in the

history of concerts at MENC

conferences. Breeden later

wrote in his autobiography:

It was wonderful to

receive letters from many

parts of the United States

from administrators who

said in effect: ‘After hearing

your band in Seattle,

how can we get such a

program started at our

school?’ I wrote and gave

them the best advice I

could, namely that it will

take a strong desire on

the part of many people

and also must be given

strong support by your

administration if your

program will succeed! This

always reminded me that

at our school we would not

have survived if the desire

had not been so strong

on the part of all of us. I

felt in summation that we

succeeded in spite of and

not with the help of many who could have helped

us but did not.

The band followed its North American travels with a

transatlantic tour in 1970, in which the One O’Clock Lab

Band was the official band of the Montreux Jazz Festival

and was recorded and broadcast on the Armed Forces

Network. The band returned to Europe in 1976, playing

in Portugal before undertaking an extended tour of the

Soviet Union and its major cities. In this tour, Breeden

wore a custom pair of cowboy boots with “NTSU” on the

front of the right boot, and “JAZZ” on the left. These boots

came to the UNT Music Library with the rest of Breeden’s

extensive archive.

Breeden solidified the program’s reputation as a place

where students learn to be well-rounded professionals by

studying the jazz tradition and by adding to it with their

own compositions, arrangements, and improvisations.

The degree title was changed from Dance Band to Jazz

Education in 1975, in a year that coincided with the first of

the One O’Clock Lab Band’s seven Grammy nominations for

Lab ’75, which featured compositions and arrangements by

Lyle Mays. The first and only collegiate jazz band to achieve

this honor, the One O’Clock Lab band earned a second

nomination for Lab ’76.

Beverly Dahlke-Smith was the first woman to ever play in

the One O’Clock Lab Band; she played baritone saxophone

on Lab ’76. She has since gone on to have a prolific

saxophone career playing as a member of the “Late Show”

Band, appearing in the “Heat is On” music video with Glenn

Frey, recording on dozens of movie soundtracks, television

Neil Slater at lab band rehearsal in 1982.

(“The Simpsons,” “The Family

Guy”) and broadway shows,

not to mention albums with

numerous artists (Dwight

Yoakum, Jimmy Buffett,

Kansas, Bette Midler, Dianne

Reeves, Kirk Franklin). Beverly

has had the distinctions

of being the only female

instrumentalist in the Les

Brown Band of Renown, the

first female instrumentalist in

the Harry James Band and the

first woman to be a full-time

member of a studio band for a

TV talk show, “The Joan Rivers

Show.”

As the ’70s went on, Breeden

hired faculty who had long,

influential tenures, including

Jim Riggs, Dan Haerle, Rich

Matteson, Jack Petersen, and

Paris Rutherford, strengthening

the program’s institutional

standing. Rutherford built upon

a group of singers initially

put together by Lew Gillis to

sing jingles for a commercial

arranging class to form the Jazz

Singers in 1979. The ensemble

has gone on to perform in a variety of high-profile national

and international festivals and win numerous awards, and

the vocal jazz program has grown to include three additional

groups.

NEW DIRECTIONS

AND NEW YORK

CONNECTIONS

Pianist and composer Neil Slater succeeded Breeden as

director in 1981. He brought a New York sensibility to the

program and established the Jazz Lecture Series in 1982 to

bring top jazz musicians, mostly from New York, to perform

and speak with students. He hired faculty who would have

a lasting impact: Mike Steinel (trumpet, improvisation,

pedagogy), Ed Soph (drumset), Fred Hamilton (guitar), Lynn

Seaton (bass) and David Joyner (jazz history).

The undergraduate degree title was changed to Jazz

Studies in 1981. A master’s degree was added in 1983.

Later in the 1980s, a distinct degree program for vocal jazz

emerged, and it has since grown to serve around 20-25

students at any given time. The university’s name changed

from North Texas State University to the University of North

Texas in 1988. According to John Murphy, the previous

name has nonetheless proven quite durable, with the name

change being, “a fact that continues to be overlooked by

journalists and musicians—and everybody who wants to

seem hip by pretending they knew about it before the

name changed.”


15

Under Slater’s leadership, the One O’Clock Lab Band added two

more Grammy nominations, including “Got a Match?” from Lab ‘89

and one for his composition “Values” from Lab ‘91; toured Australia,

Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Thailand, and all the

major European festivals; and recorded live in Montreaux, Australia

and at Blues Alley. Starting in 1995, the Glenn E. Gomez International

Artists Endowment for Jazz Studies has brought distinguished

musicians to meet with students and perform with the One O’Clock

Lab Band and other student ensembles.

Slater’s era also saw the beginnings of the diversification of

the program’s faculty and curriculum. When Stefan Karlsson

succeeded Dan Haerle as professor of jazz piano and small group

coordinator, he became the first full-time Jazz Studies faculty

member from outside the United States (Sweden). When classical

and jazz trombonist Tony Baker joined the faculty of the Division

of Instrumental Studies and began teaching lessons to jazz

trombonists, he became the first Black full-time professor to teach

in Jazz Studies. Rosana Eckert joined the faculty in 1999 as not

only the first recipient of an MM in vocal jazz from UNT but also the

first woman and Hispanic faculty member to teach in the division.

In 2003, José Aponte, another alumnus who had been involved in

leading early Latin jazz projects as a graduate student in the 1990s,

returned to UNT as director of the Latin Jazz Ensemble. Designated

a Lab Band in 2010, they have recorded five albums, including

their most recent project, 5th Harvest, released as part of the 75th

anniversary of the program. They have performed at numerous

festivals; worked with guest artists Michael Spiro, Ignacio Berroa,

Luis Conte, Manuel Valera, Duduka da Fonseca, and Danílo Pérez;

and received multiple DownBeat awards.

TRANSITIONS AND

TRADITIONS

The 2008 retirements of Neil Slater and Jim Riggs, followed by

that of Paris Rutherford the next year, began a period of renewal

during which the program adapted to a changing music profession

and jazz education market while holding fast to fundamental

values of tradition, student creativity, and professionalism.

Because the university had begun to require more administrative

work by chairs, Dean James Scott separated the roles of division

chair and director of the One O’Clock Lab Band, which until then

had been filled by the same person. John Murphy was named to

the chair position to advise graduate students while continuing to

teach history, analysis, and research. Trombonist, composer, and

alumnus Steve Wiest, recently hired in a new jazz composition line,

became director of the One O’Clock Lab Band.

Wiest’s high-energy, jazz-rock influenced compositions continued

the band’s tradition of pushing the envelope and resulted in two

Grammy nominations for Lab 2009, one for best large ensemble

jazz album and the other for best instrumental composition for his

“Ice-9.” The band continued to perform extensively across the United

States, including headlining such festivals and jazz venues as the Jazz

Education Network Conference, Texas Music Educators Association

events, Monterey Jazz Festival, Catalina’s, and Birdland where they

released a three-piece live video. They also toured internationally,

returning to both Thailand and the United Kingdom. Wiest collaborated

with donor and alumnus Bill Collins III, an anonymous donor, and the

UNT Music Library to bring the library of Maynard Ferguson, Wiest’s

former employer, to UNT in 2008. He also founded the U-Tubes jazz

trombone ensemble, which has won national recognition.

Steve Wiest

and Phil Bulla

16

Jay Saunders

One O’Clock Lab

Band, under direction

of Neil Slater, received

it’s fourth Grammy

nomination for the

Lab ‘91 album track

“Values.”

Most of the current faculty joined the department after the end of

the Slater-Riggs-Rutherford era, bringing fresh perspectives to the

already robust program. Vocalist and composer-arranger Jennifer

Barnes became director of the UNT Jazz Singers and the first

woman to be a full-time, tenure-track faculty member in Jazz Studies.

Her efforts in collaboration with the UNT Music Library led to the

donation of the Gene Puerling library of vocal jazz arrangements to

UNT in 2014, and she has begun publishing her editions of Puerling’s

arrangements. Brad Leali, who succeeded Jim Riggs as professor

of jazz saxophone, became the first Black full-time, tenure track

professor in the Division of Jazz Studies. In addition to his applied

lesson teaching, he directed the Three O’Clock Lab Band and

coordinated the small group program. Composer and drummer Rich

DeRosa succeeded Paris Rutherford and added orchestral and new

media emphases to the composition and arranging curriculum.

Upon Wiest’s departure in 2014, lead trumpet specialist Jay

Saunders, who had succeeded Jim Riggs as director of the

Two O’Clock Lab Band, directed the One O’Clock Lab Band for

two years and added the seventh Grammy nomination, for Rich

DeRosa’s composition “Neil” (in honor of Neil Slater) on Lab 2015.

Saunders led the band on their return to Australia, headlining

the 2016 Generations in Jazz Festival. Composer-arranger Alan

Baylock became the One O’Clock Lab Band director in 2016. A

UNT alumnus himself, Baylock enjoyed a successful and prolific

career as chief arranger for the United States Air Force’s Airmen of

Note before he returned to North Texas.

As the 2010s continued, Tanya Darby succeeded Jay Saunders

in the lead trumpet teaching role and directed the Three O’Clock

Lab Band before departing to chair the Brass Department at the

Berklee College of Music. The expertise of new faculty continues

to expand and enrich the experience of jazz students at UNT:

Quincy Davis as professor of drumset, Davy Mooney as professor

of jazz guitar, Philip Dizack as professor of trumpet, and Dave

Meder as professor of piano and coordinator of jazz improvisation.

When health issues forced John Murphy to retire after the fall 2019

semester, Rob Parton, professor of jazz trumpet (lead emphasis),

assumed the chair role, and musicologist Kimberly Hannon Teal

was hired in 2021 to teach jazz history, analysis, and research.

To help students meet the changing demands of the music

profession, adjunct instructor and lead trumpeter Jason Levi

created and taught a music business class. With the help of Dean

John Richmond, new faculty lines were created in popular music

and technology, taught by Jonathan “Capital” Patterson; jazz

strings, taught by violinist Scott Tixier, who re-established the Jazz

Strings Ensemble as a faculty-led ensemble; and jazz trombone,

taught by Nick Finzer, whose media company/jazz record label

Outside In Music provides a model of entrepreneurship. This fall,

Jessica Muñiz-Collado and Federico Llach joined the faculty to

teach music business and commercial music.

Other recent developments in the curriculum include the addition

of a doctoral degree in 2012 and a refreshed undergraduate

curriculum designed to help jazz majors grapple with the music’s

past and future. The new program centers jazz’s African American

history with its inclusion of 15 credits of courses that make up the

Africana Studies certificate, and it also provides space for students

to pursue a minor in commercial music alongside their Jazz Studies

major as they prepare to bring their jazz knowledge and skills

to contemporary music careers. Jazz at North Texas continues

to thrive by building on its remarkable history while preparing

students to be at the forefront of the music’s future.

17

Reflections

ON 75 YEARS OF NORTH TEXAS JAZZ

BY JOHN MURPHY

1961-2022


Isabel Wilkerson opens her book on caste in the United

States with the metaphor of a house:

America is an old house. We can never declare

the work over. Wind, flood, drought, and human

upheavals batter a structure that is already fighting

whatever flaws were left unattended in the original

foundation. When you live in an old house, you may

not want to go into the basement after a storm to

see what the rains have wrought. Choose not to

look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an

old house knows that whatever you are ignoring

will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester

whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is

no protection from the consequences of inaction.

Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you

until you gather the courage to face what you would

rather not see. Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins

of Our Discontents (New York: Random House,

2020), page 15.

As the program looks back on its first 75 years and

imagines its future, we are surveying our 75-year-old house.

In addition to surveying our program’s achievements, it’s

important to look in the basement: to check its foundation,

to address its failings, how it has been perceived over time,

what its effects on jazz education and the music profession

have been, and how its enduring values can be adapted to

the continuously changing music profession.

SEGREGATION,

RACE AND INCLUSION

Not surprisingly for a program that was started in a stillsegregated

university, race in particular and diversity and

inclusion in general have been continual concerns, in various

ways. Gene Hall’s 1944 master’s thesis on the dance band

curriculum, regarded as a founding document of the program,

includes an overview of jazz history that credits Native

Americans, not Black Americans, as the originators of swing

rhythm. He ignored the consensus of jazz writers of the time

and adopted the view of a fringe commentator. In his 1991

oral history interview, Hall was asked by historian Michael

Cogswell, “Did you have any black students in the program?”

Hall replies, “No, we didn’t have any black students because

this was not an integrated school until--what--1954 or 1955.”

Interviewer Ron Marcello states, “The first graduate student was

accepted in 1954, and actually it began accepting its first black

undergraduate students in the spring semester of 1956.” Gene

Hall replies:

Well, that year we had some good blacks come in.

There was a guy who is still active around Dallas. He

played saxophone. He plays piano now. I can’t think

of his name. We had a good tenor man and a good

baritone man come up from Dallas. Both of them

were good tenor men—both saxophone. We were all

delighted to have them because they improved the

band. But about a couple of weeks later, I got a note

from [then university president] Matthews to the effect

that, if we played on our campus, it was all right; but if


we went off the campus, we couldn’t use them in the

band. So I had to tell the guys, and they left the school.

I don’t blame them, but I had to be honest with them

about it. I said, “Here is the way it is. What can I say?”

In this and other ways, the interview is a reminder that Hall

was a product of his time and place. He was born in 1913 in

Whitewright, TX, a small town near Sherman, the population of

which has never exceeded 2,000, and spent much of his early

musical career in a music business that was as segregated as

the rest of society in those years. His choice not to make an

issue of including black musicians in off-campus performances

may reflect a reluctance to take actions that would jeopardize

the continuation of the recently established program, which

had faced opposition from faculty and community.

Guitarist and alumnus Don Gililland provides the

perspective of a white player on the racial divide in the bands

in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in the early 1960s:

I had been playing professionally for several

years prior to NT, first with some outstanding high

school colleagues and later with all-black bands

(the legendary Buster Smith for one), where I gained

valued experience. This was short-lived, however, as

the black ensembles became popular in some of the

mainstream Dallas venues. Sadly, while I had been

accepted and welcomed at private parties and allblack

functions, the still segregated downtown supper

club scene was not open to integrated bands and I

was let go.

At North Texas, the atmosphere was totally

different. In the bands, and campus-wide, the

diversity was apparent and harmonious, a stark

contrast to what I was experiencing just a few miles

away.

Regarding the job with Buster Smith, mentor of Charlie

Parker, Gililland recalls:

Actually I inherited the job from a fellow classmate

and mentor, Steve Rodriguez. We were making a

whopping $8 a night playing in a strip club I was too

young to even be in. I had no idea at the time I was

in the presence of greatness.

The separation of the music scene into white and

black spheres—not to mention separate locals of the

American Federation of Musicians—was accepted

as normal. White and black musicians in the Dallas-

Ft. Worth area in those years worked in separate

spheres. There were exceptions in the case of

private parties or smaller clubs. But the larger venues

expected bands to be segregated, and country clubs

required all of the musicians to be white.

Trumpeter Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago

also studied at North Texas in the early 1960s. His

experiences here, as relayed by George Lewis, provide a

glimpse of what studying in the program in the early years

was like for black students:

Bowie’s subsequent experience at North Texas State

University, where he was part of the earliest crop of

jazz students in the first degree-granting program in

19

20

jazz in the United States, proved first enlightening,

then daunting. Given the presence in the community

of such amazing musicians as saxophonists Billy

Harper, James Clay, and David “Fathead” Newman,

Bowie found the atmosphere at the school itself

incongruous, to say the least. “I’m trying to figure out,

how can these motherfuckers be up here studying

black art, and got the audacity to be racist? I went

there one year, then dropped out.” [Quoted in George

Lewis’, A power stronger than itself: the AACM and

American experimental music (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 137-138]

A well-known saxophonist of color who attended UNT in the

late 1980s told me that he transferred away from UNT due to

racist incidents experienced off-campus.

The jazz program, like any undertaking of imperfect human

beings, has at times fallen short of being optimally welcoming

and inclusive. This has been addressed in several ways in

recent years. In 2018, in the context of the #MeToo movement,

when fresh reports were made of instances in which faculty

and students had treated each other with less than the respect

they deserve, we acted. I collaborated with the university’s

Division of Institutional Equity and Diversity to offer training

sessions for faculty and students. Those who didn’t already

know what a microaggression was found out. A committee of

faculty and students designed a survey, which, after review

by Equity and Diversity, was administered and studied as a

basis for more training sessions for faculty. A student group,

supported by Tanya Darby and me, formed the Women in Jazz

Initiative, later renamed the Jazz & Gender Equity Initiative,

both of which included all genders in their memberships. More

of an effort was made to invite women as guest artists and

to make sure they had opportunities to perform and to act

as musical mentors, not only as speakers on women in jazz.

Recent examples are residencies by Maria Schneider and the

Terri Lyne Carrington group.

In 2020 the honorific naming of Kenton Hall was removed,

and the name reverted to Lab Band West, due to concern from

faculty and students about a 2010 book by Kenton’s daughter

in which she claimed the two had a sexual relationship.

The jazz studies faculty is more diverse than ever. Of the

fifteen full-time faculty whose primary division is Jazz Studies,

four are people of color and three are women; a sixteenth line,

in popular music, remains unfilled at the time of writing.

We’re moving in the right direction. If the program is

to deal effectively with the legacy of its founding, it must

continually reflect on how well it is meeting goals of diversity

and inclusion. Our 75-year-old house needs continual

maintenance.

THE NORTH TEXAS

JAZZ PROGRAM AS

MODEL & TARGET

Once a program has become prominent as a model of

excellence, it’s not surprising that it then can become a target

of criticism. When higher education in jazz is critiqued by

journalists and scholars, our program and a few others are

frequently cited as examples of the downsides of the shift

in the way young musicians learn the tradition: from the

bandstand to the classroom. Such critiques underestimate the

degree to which professors’ traditional knowledge acquired on

the bandstand and on the road is passed on to their students,

many of whom will shortly have road experiences of their own.

During my time as chair, I tended to give more consideration

to critiques by journalists and scholars in proportion to the time

they have spent here in person, observing classes, listening

to rehearsals and performances, and talking with students,

faculty, and staff. In some cases the time spent in Denton has

been zero, yet their opinions were published anyway.

The most meaningful critiques of our program are the

ongoing ones provided by students, faculty, and staff. There is

a strong sentiment that, while we are still a prominent program,

and still attract highly capable students, we can always do

better. In formal evaluations and informal exchanges, the

students let us know when the program could be preparing

them better. The faculty and staff actively seek ways to

improve their teaching and the curriculum. Another source

of constructive criticism has been the guest artists who visit

regularly, especially those who are here long enough to coach

and rehearse with our students.

A PROGRAM BASED

IN DENTON

The history of the jazz studies degree included in this

program identified the actions and motivations of the

people responsible for founding a world-class jazz studies

program in Denton, Texas, which had a population in 1950

of around 20,000. This place has had a significant effect on

the experience of the program’s students. For those from

even smaller Texas cities and towns, it represented a new

kind of sophistication. Composer and trombonist Morgan

Powell recalls:

I came from Archer City, TX of Larry McMurtry’s

movie The Last Picture Show fame. Larry and I

grew up in this dismal town of 1,400 people. We

went on to be house mates in Denton—Larry as

a sophomore and I a freshman. I was used to

wearing cowboy clothes—Levi’s, pearl snap shirts

and boots. After the first rehearsal day of the lab

band in ‘56, several older members took me aside

and said, “look boy, if you’re going to play in this

band, you’ve got to get rid of that cowboy outfit.”

And I did.

For students from larger cities and the coasts, Denton

could feel like a town that was very small. The fact

that there was little to do was a plus for their musical

development. Bill Collins III recalls:

Denton was a small, boring town when I arrived

from the big city of Ft. Worth. There was very little to

do, and no distractions. Instead of being tempted to

go see a great movie, or concert, I would find myself

so bored that I would go practice. I didn’t have to

make time to practice, there was nothing else to

do in town. The school had a lousy football and

basketball program compared to others, so I had

hours to practice. The small-town environment is

perfect to promote practice with few distractions. It


Downtown Denton

worked for me because my playing improved much

faster in Denton than in Ft. Worth thanks to the

overall environment (small town, great faculty, great

peer players, great writers, etc.). The environment is

the key part of learning and growing, in my opinion.

What students then and now appreciated is the fact that

the cost of living in Denton is relatively low compared to

a larger city. The rental house that hosts jam sessions is a

fixture of student culture. It’s close enough to Dallas and

Ft. Worth to allow frequent gigging. Denton has typically

had clubs where students could play for their peers, though

too often for no pay. For much of the program’s history,

when tuition was regulated, tuition was easily affordable.

Even after many increases, UNT’s tuition is less (in some

cases, tens of thousands of dollars less) than that of other

nationally prominent jazz programs.

Denton has incorporated jazz in its civic identity. In 2011,

when train service began between Denton and the Dallas

transit system, it was named the A Train, after the Billy

Strayhorn composition.

“VALUES”:

WHAT HAS ENDURED,

WHAT HAS CHANGED,

AND WHAT’S AHEAD

Over the 75 years the program has gone from an outsider

program, one that required a name other than jazz, to the

pride of the university. This has been accomplished through

the collective efforts of the faculty, staff, administration, and

largely the students themselves, whose accomplishments

continue to shine light on the value of their experience in


Denton, TX. The North Texas Jazz program is now lauded by

the very institution that once shunned it.

During my tenure as chair, when I described the program

to prospective students and parents, I typically described our

mission this way:

Our mission is:

• To prepare students for careers as professional

musicians. This doesn’t mean only performing; it could be

stated as preparing students for careers as professionals

in music, which could include composition and arranging,

music education, music production, music business, and

so on. It also obliges the program to adjust its curriculum

as the demands of the music profession change.

• To ensure that students are knowledgeable about the

jazz tradition. In each studio, in each professor’s unique

way, students learn that “it didn’t start with me,” and that

they need to internalize that history through listening

so that they can make music with an awareness of who

came before.

• To encourage student creativity. What’s traditional in

jazz is to know the tradition and then add to it by making

music that speaks to what it means to be alive right now.

Many of us like New Testament Basie, Sarah Vaughan’s

scatting, and the Blue Note records sound, but it’s not

the 1950s–60s. We’re not relaxing between takes at

Rudy Van Gelder’s studio. We’re dealing with 2021, so the

music should sound different.

Looking ahead, I envision continual improvement, as

the program is revised to prepare students for the music

profession they will enter. I expect the program to maintain

what Neil Slater often stated as a reason for our success: “Full.

Time. Faculty.” And I have confidence that the creative drive of

our students, faculty, and staff will propel the program towards

its centennial.

21

JAZZ ENSEMBLES

23

ONE O’CLOCK LAB BAND ®

DIRECTOR

Alan Baylock

SAXOPHONES

Ian Weidmann (lead)

Carly Stock

Gabriel Nieves

Anthony Bolden

Jack Lanhardt

TRUMPETS

Renée McGee (lead)

Richie Thaller (split lead)

Ben Carroll

Craig Schroeder

David Vest

TROMBONES

Ken Ebo (split lead/III)

Jason Schilling

DJ Rice (split lead/III)

Connor Fallon (bass)

Kenny Ross (bass)

RHYTHM

Will St. Peter (guitar)

Jake Nalangan (piano)

August Bish (bass)

Colman Burks (drumset)

Thomas Reilly (vibes)

Katelyn Robinson (voice)

24

San Antonio, TX

Los Angeles, CA

Rolling Hills, CA

Salem, OR

Corona, CA

Stafford, VA

Acton, MA

Jupiter, FL

Dallas, TX

Lexington, KY

Camden, SC

Bellevue, WA

Rowlett, TX

Fort Worth, TX

Sherwood, OR

Bucksport, ME

Sacramento, CA

Harrisburg, PA

Plano, TX

Bernardsville, NJ

Los Angeles, CA

ONE O’CLOCK LAB BAND ®

is the premier performing ensemble of the jazz studies program. With

seven Grammy Award® nominations (one or more per decade since the

1970s) from a library of over eighty critically acclaimed recordings to date,

the One O’Clock is noted for its exceptional individual musicianship and

tight ensemble performance. Concerts feature the wealth of compositions

and arrangements from the UNT Jazz Library, which contains critical big

band repertoire and thousands of musical works written by current and

former North Texas students and faculty members. In addition, every

performance now showcases music composed or arranged by both

prominent and up-and-coming women musicians.

The band has toured internationally, including performances in Russia,

Mexico, Switzerland, England, France, The Netherlands, Australia,

Portugal, Finland, Norway, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong,

Poland, Ireland, and Thailand. Additionally, the band has performed at

major jazz festivals, including Monterey, Cork/Guinness, Montreux (the

first college band to do so), Vienne, North Sea, Spoleto, Pori, and Umbria,

and frequently appears at major jazz venues such as Birdland in New

York City, Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., and Catalina’s in Los Angeles,

California. Furthermore, the One O’Clock has been the featured headliner

at music conferences, concerts hosted by fine arts series, and numerous

colleges and high schools across the United States and abroad.

The One O’Clock Lab Band continues to inspire new generations

of musicians through unforgettable performances, stellar studio

recordings, and a strong social media presence - honoring the past

while forging the future.


LAB 2021

ONE O’CLOCK

LAB BAND ®

11.19.2021

All rights reserved.

Unauthorized duplication

prohibited by applicable

laws. Proceeds from the

sale of North Texas Jazz

recordings benefit the

University of North Texas

and are used to support

the jazz studies program

through scholarships,

public performances, tours,

and related activities.

Album available for purchase today and

STREAMING ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Recording and Producing

The One O’Clock Lab Band ®

By Phil Bulla

Producing and recording the One O’Clock Lab

Band since 1986 has led to some of the most rewarding

and memorable experiences of my career.

Each year, my role with the band presents a

unique opportunity to invest in the lives of the next

generation of jazz musicians. My approach has

ALWAYS been to create a recording experience

that will educate and inspire the members of the

band. For the students, recording the Lab Band

album is a culmination of their years of practice,

training, and focus, with one goal—to make an

outstanding recording that is of the highest degree

of excellence knowing that it will become a

part of their legacy. A legacy that will be listened

to and studied for generations.

During my tenure, I’ve recorded the One O’Clock

in three different recording studios, numerous live

venues throughout the world, and experienced

substantial innovations in recording technologies.

During the 1980s we recorded onto 2” reel-toreel

analog tapes. By the 1990s, analog recording

transitioned into the digital era and we worked

on various forms of digital tape formats including

1” reel-to-reel tape and DA-88s. Later in the

1990s most recording studios had changed from

analog-only systems to digital recording and Pro

Tools became the de facto recording software,

which we still use today.

The recording of The One O’Clock annual album

typically requires three to four marathon (14-hour)

days in the studio. Throughout the recording process

each student’s stamina and talent are taxed

and tested to the highest degree. During the

sessions I take a three-pronged approach to my

engineering and producing.

First, I make technical decisions that directly affect

the sonic presentation and continuity of the


and students, spending two to three hours on

each piece. I meticulously follow scores, make

performance notes, continuously make “tweaks”

and edits to performances, jot down timings so I

can navigate to specific sections in a piece, and

most importantly help guide the overall process

so that we work effectively and efficiently.

recording: The selection and placement of microphones,

the sonic processing of the individual

instruments and the seating of the band, typically

a “block” or “performance” setup, all contribute to

the sound that is the hallmark of the One O’Clock

Lab Band recordings.

Second, as a musician myself, I make spontaneous

musical and creative decisions, working

hand-in-hand with the director, production team

The third prong of my approach is in many ways

the most important. Someone once said, “Education

means inspiring someone’s mind,” and that

has become my mantra as I’ve worked on each

One O’Clock recording. During the recording process

I engage and involve the students as much

as possible in every aspect. I encourage them to

make creative decisions, explain recording techniques

and tips and in the case of student composers,

involve them in the mixing sessions, which

is an invaluable opportunity for them to participate

in the final step of the production process.

The technical and creative aspects of the recording

are of course essential, but I’ve learned that

the most important goal, and the one that is most

rewarding to me, is for each and every student to

leave our sessions encouraged by their achievement

and experience. This will be an inspiration

and memory that will resonate with them throughout

their careers.

Meet

Unsung Hero

Michael Vazquez

One of the unsung heroes of the UNT Jazz Program

is audio engineer Michael Vazquez. He has mixed

more live concerts of the One O’Clock than

anyone and continues to mix for the band regularly for

off-campus performances. Vazquez has served as the

assistant recording engineer on every One O’Clock Lab

Band studio album since 1990. He’s also mixed for the

UNT Jazz Singers on numerous occasions. Since 2009

Michael has been the front of house engineer for the UNT

Jazz Stage at the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival, annually

putting in a marathon forty hours over three days. Always

working hard; always with a smile. Michael Vazquez is

mixing monitors for our reunion concerts this weekend.

We thank you, Michael, for your loyalty to the jazz

program and decades of dedicated service.


27

TWO O’CLOCK LAB BAND

PHOTO BY MATT HELLMAN

Nigel Regan

Gabriel Burns

Tito Charneco

Anthony Singer

Rylan Villarreal

DIRECTOR

Rob Parton

SAXOPHONES

North Haven, CT

Long Beach, CA

Guayanilla, Puerto Rico

Denver, CO

Keller, TX

TRUMPETS

Tyler Jones

Columbus, OH

Alex Billingsley

Asheville, NC

Jeremiah Arenas

Bryan, TX

Jonathan Orellana-Sanchez Chantilly, VA

Joshua Zeitlin

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Cam Henderson

Nicholas Mailes

Maximo Santana

Paul Covert

TROMBONES

Vancouver, Canada

Joplin, MO

Houston, TX

Richmond, VA

RHYTHM

Daniëlla Hart Rossouw (voice) Johannesburg, South Africa

James Merritt (drumset) Waxahachie, TX

Anthony Casolari (bass)

Tamarac, FL

Jeongmin Ha (piano) Hwaseong, South Korea

Gabriel Garcia (guitar)

Dallas, TX

28

TWO O’CLOCK LAB BAND

Under the direction of Rob Parton, The University of North Texas Two

O’Clock Lab Band is among the premier collegiate big bands in the

nation. The Two O’Clock maintains a tradition of garnering national and

state recognitions, including twenty invited headline performances at the

Wichita Jazz Festival, first place at the Longhorn Jazz Festival in Austin,

TX, invited performances at the Texas Music Educators Association state

convention, the International Association fpr Jazz Education Conference,

Jazz Education Network, and The Midwest Clinic.

With a recording catalog of 20 critically acclaimed albums, the band

has earned multiple DownBeat Student Award recognitions across

four decades as the Best Graduate Level Jazz Ensemble in addition

to innumerable individual student recognitions. Previously under the

direction of jazz legends James Riggs (1978–2008), Jay Saunders

(2008–2014), Rodney Booth (2014–2019), and now led by Professor of

Lead Trumpet and UNT Jazz Division Chair Rob Parton, the Two O’Clock

continues the storied tradition, focusing on its legendary reputation for

heavy swing and outstanding jazz soloists.

The Two O’Clock performs from a curated library of the very best

repertoire for large jazz ensemble as well as innovative original

compositions by UNT students and is actively sought after to present jazz

concerts at jazz festivals, high schools and colleges throughout Texas

and the United States Alumni of the North Texas jazz program are virtually

everywhere in the professional music industry as performing artists, jazz

educators, producers, composers, and arrangers.


BLUES

IN SLOW MOTION

A listening experience like no other!

Available for

purchase today

and streaming on

all digital platforms

music.unt.edu

All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited by applicable laws. Proceeds from the

sale of North Texas Jazz recordings benefit the University of North Texas and are used to support

the jazz studies program through scholarships, public performances, tours, and related activities.

THREE O’CLOCK LAB BAND


YJ Shin

Eric Crenshaw

Brian Lawrence

Chris Schiavoni

Aidan Sears

30

DIRECTOR

Richard DeRosa

TRUMPETS

Jack Starkey

Garrett De Rudder

Caleb Congdon

Vince Nutile

Zachary Williamson

Isaac Gong

Sean Decoursey

Alex Parker

Drew Bryant

SAXOPHONES

Seoul, South Korea

Denton, TX

Bellevue, WA

Cramerton, NC

Los Angeles, CA

TROMBONES

Chandler, AZ

Wylie, TX

New Braunfels, TX

Annapolis, MD

Orange County, CA

Tianjin, China

Chicago, IL

Williamsburg, VA

St. Charles, IL

RHYTHM

Nan Wang (voice) Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

Thomas Reilly (vibes) Bernardsville, NJ

Andrew Getman (guitar) Birmingham, AL

David Hu (piano)

The Woodlands, TX

Luciano Quezada (bass)

McKinney, TX

Aramís Fernández (drumset) Hialeah, FL

THREE O’CLOCK LAB BAND

Professor of jazz composition and arranging at UNT, Richard DeRosa

directs the Three O’Clock Lab Band. This, along with the One and Two,

is a clear indication of the depth of experience in the UNT jazz studies

division represented by these faculty-led top three jazz lab bands.

The Three O’Clock has appeared at the Notre Dame, UT Longhorn,

Friends University and Wichita jazz festivals. The Three has served as

the house band for the annual UNT Jazz Trombone Day event at UNT by

former director Nick Finzer. It has also performed for the Gospel Meets

Jazz series organized by former director and jazz saxophone professor

Brad Leali.

Professor DeRosa has extensive experience writing for and conducting

many of the top professional jazz orchestras in the world, including

residencies with the WDR Big Band and guest conducting his

commissioned pieces with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the

request of Wynton Marsalis. Recent album projects include: My Personal

Songbook, featuring Ron Carter; Rediscovered Ellington, featuring Garry

Dial and Dick Oatts; Perseverance – The Music of Rich DeRosa at North

Texas, that includes “Suite for an Anniversary,” a commissioned work that

celebrated UNT’s 125th anniversary.

DeRosa received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental

Composition for his big band composition “Neil” which is dedicated to

Neil Slater, director of the One O’Clock Lab Band from 1981–2008 and

recorded by the One O’Clock Lab Band on Lab 2015.


JAZZ STRINGS LAB


DIRECTOR

Scott Tixier

VIOLINS

Jacob Cortez

San Antonio, TX

Ciara Hager

Medicine Hat, AB, Canada

Anya Hollingsworth

Dallas, TX

Jess Meador

Bridgeport, TX

Marijn Meijer

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Joseph Reding

Houston, TX

Victoria Ricalde

Lewisville, TX

Vianey C. Rivera

Houston, TX

Sofia Vega

Bogotá, Colombia

Sydney Young

Seattle, WA

Grace Remmer

Sarah Shultz

VIOLA

Waco, TX

Waco, TX

JAZZ STRINGS LAB

The Jazz Strings Lab was founded by professor Scott Tixier in 2018.

Repertoire includes selections from movie scores, jazz standards, new

classical and minimalist music.

The Jazz Strings Lab has collaborated and been featured with

legendary artists such as Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Matt Jones.

Check out our ALBUM SETS

David Hu

Tzefira Jones

Ben Katzen

Noah Leiva

CELLO

The Woodlands, TX

Carrollton, TX

Sparta, NJ

Fort Worth, TX

HARP

Maria De Jesus Contrera

Frisco, TX

RHYTHM SECTION

Brenin Coin (piano)

Houston, TX

Yizhuo Li (drumset)

Tianjin, China

Ricardo Alberto Puche Bravo (bass) Maracaibo, Venezuela


Available for purchase in person

or online at STORE.JAZZ.UNT.EDU

31

LATIN JAZZ LAB BAND


DIRECTOR

José Aponte

SAXOPHONES

Nigel Regan

Christopher Schiavoni

Daniel Henson

Heath De Guzman

Zane Crider

TRUMPETS

Alejandro Munoz

Richard Thaller

Jeremiah Arenas

Jonathan Orellana

Alexander Billingsley

Nicholas Mailes

Max Santana

Joshua Busby

Paul Covert

TROMBONES

RHYTHM

Abigail Litjens (voice)

Keita Onuma (guitar)

Isaiah Nygard (piano)

Adam Abrams (bass)

Aramís Fernández (drumset)

Isaac LaVigne (congas)

Jeffery Chaidez (bongó)

32

North Haven, CT

Cramerton, NC

Fairfax, VA

Houston, TX

Lubbock, TX

El Paso, TX

Acton, MA

Bryan, TX

Chantilly, VA

Asheville, NC

Joplin, MO

Houston, TX

Sherwood, OR

Richmond, VA

Oshkosh, WI

Yokosuka, Japan

Kutztown, PA

Frederick, MD

Hialeah, FL

Lake in the Hills, IL

Houston, TX

LATIN JAZZ LAB BAND

is a jazz ensemble that ventures into the musical realm between the rich

legacy of Latin American rhythms and the profound tradition of the jazz

language. Among the many Afro Latin expressions, the Afro Cuban and

the Brazilian languages had the most significant impact in the origins

and development of Jazz in the United States. Through performance

our students gain a clear perspective on how these musical traditions

continue to influence jazz composition, performance and improvisation.

The Lab is directed by UNT Jazz Studies faculty member José M. Aponte.

The lab performs multiple concerts every semester and have shared the

stage with such recognized guest artists as Michael Spiro, Ignacio Berroa,

Luis Conte, Manuel Valera, Duduka da Fonseca and Danílo Pérez. The

group has released five CDs, En Clave (2006), Dancing Small (2010), Late

Night Mambo (2012), Little d Town (2016) and 5th Harvest (2022).

The ensemble is also the recipient of DownBeat magazine’s 36th Annual

Student Music Awards “Best Latin Group” Award (2013), the Jazz Education

Network Conference “Outstanding Performance Award” (2014), DownBeat

magazine’s 39th Annual Student Music Awards “Latin Group Outstanding

College Performance” (2016) and the DownBeat magazine’s 45th Annual

Student Music Awards “Best Latin Group Graduate Level Performance” (2022).

The UNT Latin Jazz Lab has performed at renowned venues and festivals

such as the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, The Alma y Fuego Latino

Festival, Dallas Latino Cultural Center, the Dallas International Festival, the

5th Annual Jazz Education Network Conference and the 13th Annual Jazz

Education Network Conference.


Spice up the Season!

with UNT Latin Jazz Lab’s newest album

music.unt.edu

Album available

for purchase

in person or

online today

STREAMING ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS

All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited by applicable laws. Proceeds from the sale of North

Texas Jazz recordings benefit the University of North Texas and are used to support the jazz studies program

through scholarships, public performances, tours, and related activities.

UNT JAZZ SINGERS


Julie Coggiola

Hannah Goodwin

Christiana Schiller

DIRECTOR

Jennifer Barnes

ALTOS

Syracuse, NY

Coeur d’ Alene, ID

San Jose, CA

SOPRANOS

Bianca Lopez

Harlingen, TX

Katelyn Robinson

Los Angeles, CA

Daniela Toralla Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala

UNT JAZZ SINGERS

is the premier vocal jazz ensemble within the Division of Jazz Studies

in the College of Music. Under the direction of Jennifer Barnes, Jazz

Singers consists of ten vocalists and a four-piece rhythm section

who perform a challenging and varied repertoire of jazz and jazzinfluenced

cutting-edge repertoire, notably featuring compositions

and arrangements by current students, alumni, and UNT faculty. They

have performed at state, national, and international music conferences

including those for the Jazz Education Network, International Association

for Jazz Education, and the American Choral Directors Association, and

have earned a DownBeat magazine Student Music Award in eight of the

last nine years.

TENORS

Christian Anderson

Kelemen Szabo

BARITONES

Dakota Andersen

Jasper Fearon

RHYTHM

Will Peters-Seymour (guitar)

Tomás Jonsson (piano)

Paul Briggs (bass)

Jeffrey Dalton (drumset)

34

Shawnee, KS

Plano, TX

Fairfield, IA

Ithaca, NY

Lexington, KY

Houston, TX

Cincinnati, OH

Portland, ME

Jazz voice majors at UNT sing in one of the four vocal jazz ensembles, as

well as studying both modern and historical practices of solo jazz singing,

songwriting, vocal pedagogy, improvisation, jazz aural and keyboard

skills, jazz theory and arranging, and jazz history. In addition, they sing

in Jazz Chamber Ensembles, Latin Jazz Lab Band, Zebras (pop/R&B/soul

band), Brazilian Ensemble, and with one of the seven Lab Bands. Over

the years, individual UNT vocal jazz students have received DownBeat

magazine Student Music Awards for solo singing, arranging, leading small

groups, and composition. Alumni of the program have gone on to win

or receive nominations for Grammy Awards, Independent Music Awards

and CASA awards, and are enjoying successful careers as recording

artists, studio singers, college professors, composers, arrangers, music

producers, and worship leaders.


Artistic expression through

MUSIC

JAZZ SINGERS RELEASES FOUR YEARS OF MUSIC!

Available for purchase

in person or online

today and streaming

on all digital platforms

Double CD album available for purchase today!

All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited by applicable laws. Proceeds from the sale

of North Texas Jazz recordings benefit the University of North Texas and are used to support the jazz

studies program through scholarships, public performances, tours, and related activities.

OTHER ENSEMBLES

FOUR O’CLOCK

DIRECTOR

Gerald Ebo

SAXOPHONES

Caden Sader

Christopher Polloni

Isaac Jacinto

Jonathan Arcangel

Kyle Leonard

TRUMPETS

Naoki Hoshi

Cody Saucier

Christina Smith

Joshua Jennings

Richard Cruz

TROMBONES

Joey Lopez

Jack Timmins

Austin Hallmark

Aaron Anderton-Coss

RHYTHM

Jasper Fearon (voice)

Nathan Siegel (vibraphone)

Ian Zinecker (guitar)

Benjamin Barker (piano)

William Tober (bass)

Jack Zondlo (bass)

Jeffrey Dalton (drumset)

William O’Rourke (drumset)

AVENUE C

DIRECTOR

Dakota Andersen

FIVE O’CLOCK

DIRECTOR

Renée McGee

SAXOPHONES

Ryan Yumang

Natalie Suvarnasuddhi

Michael Petty

Joshua Constantine

Aidan Schwarz

TRUMPETS

Isidoro Ramos

Barent Foley

Nicolas Lofgren

Bryant Johnson

TROMBONES

Joshua Busby

Luke Bielfeldt

Aksel Martinsen

Jackson Thomas

RHYTHM

Sasha Garcia (voice)


Taylor Hatch (guitar)

Runsheng Zhao (guitar)

Alessandro Paino (piano)

Patrick Bird (bass)

Tyler Kinser (bass)

Joshua Ferrell (drumset)

Isaac Lavigne (drumset)

THIRD STREET

DIRECTOR

Daniëlla Hart Rossouw

SIX O’CLOCK

DIRECTOR

DJ Rice

SAXOPHONES

Javier Vasquez

William Chenoweth

Heath De Guzman

Jae Jang

Nathanael Green

TRUMPETS

Bradley Swanson

Remy Gilboe

Leland Rossi

Aleyna Ashenfarb

Hunter Sims

TROMBONES

Devonte Ezell

Nick Bryan

Joseph Fremed

RHYTHM

Luke Bielfeldt (voice)


Hector Deleon (guitar)

Max Rubenstein-Miller (piano)

Aidan Gould (bass)

Natalia San Lee Salazar (bass)

Todd Kiefer (drumset)

Asa Nero (drumset)

WEST END

DIRECTOR

Julie Coggiola

VOCALISTS

Luke Bielfeldt

Emma Campbell

Ely Eckles

Sasha Garcia

Renée McGee

Lauren Smith

RHYTHM

Robert Hawley (guitar)

Samuel Wood (piano)

Brendan Nie (bass)

Isaac Lavigne (drumset)

VOCALISTS

Georgia Barge

Alana Dove

Margaret Gunter

Benjamin Johnson

Reese Namee

Donye Robinson

Lia Wiese

Shelby Yount

RHYTHM

Zixiang Yan (piano)

William Hagan (guitar)

Mildred Mariel Perez Hernandez (bass)

Joseph Craig (drumset)

VOCALISTS

Jules Elliott

Katelan Hudson

Jaden Malik-Savoy

Jackson-Cooper

Alexander Karpeles

Cristian Mojica

Holly Sullivan

Abby Woodhead

RHYTHM:

Brandon Ortega (guitar)

Aakash Sridhar (piano)

Palmer McDaniel (bass)

Jacob Speth (drumset)

Avenue C, Third Street, and West End are complete vocal jazz ensembles in the Jazz Studies

Division, directed by our Graduate Teaching Fellows. Differences between the four levels of

ensembles include size of the group, composition of the group and repertoire focus.

36


OTHER ENSEMBLES

SEVEN O’CLOCK

DIRECTOR

Joshua Ferrell

U-TUBES

DIRECTOR

Cameron Henderson

ZEBRAS

DIRECTOR

Robert Parton

SAXOPHONES

Cristian Mojica

Jonathan Forbes

Caden Walsh

Zachary Gresik

Michael Kreuzer

TRUMPETS

David Yoon

Alejandro Sigala

Matthew Pulido

Jaden Oldham

Trinity McHellen

TROMBONES

Ian McGuire

Travis Harris

Lucky Floyd

Molly Lum

Kenneth Spencer

RHYTHM

Georgia Barge (voice)


Michael Morales (guitar)

Benjamin Broussard (guitar)

Joseph Woodburn (piano)

Henry Peyrebrune (bass)

Sarah Short (bass)

Joseph Craig (drumset)

Yizhuo Li (drumset)

SUPER 400

DIRECTOR

Ryan Peterson

GUITAR

Anthony Schneider

Joshua Garrison

Kevin Morrison

Jacob Jones

Jacob Elibol

RHYTHM

Kurt Murrow (bass)

Kyle Dorny (drumset)

TROMBONES

Jason Schilling

Isaac (Xi) Gong

Joshua Busby

Sean DeCoursey

Alex Parker

Drew Bryant

Paul Covert

Connor Fallon

RHYTHM

Ariel Glassman (guitar)

Alexandre Lesieutre (piano)

Claudia Easterwood (bass)

Joshua Ferrell (drumset)

The U-Tubes, directed by Assistant Professor

Nick Finzer and teaching assistant Cameron

Henderson is the premier jazz trombone ensemble

of the University of North Texas. Consisting

of eight trombonists and rhythm section,

they exclusively perform arrangements

and original compositions by members of the

group. In the past three years, the U-Tubes

have been the winners of international trombone

ensemble competitions hosted by the

American Trombone Workshop and the International

Trombone Association.

L-5

DIRECTOR

Will St. Peter

GUITAR

Warren Talcroft

Christopher Schiavoni

Ethan Hope

Samson Dinkins

Vignesh Iyer

RHYTHM

Bodin Chompoosri (bass)

Jackson Beebee (drumset)

The UNT guitar ensembles were created by Professor Emeritus Fred Hamilton. They are

some of the many diverse performing groups at UNT. Davy Mooney, Professor in Jazz Studies,

coordinates them. In these ensembles, guitarists have the unique opportunity to rehearse and

perform in a section of five or more guitars. This helps students focus on reading skills, ensemble

blend, group articulations, electric effects utilization, comping and soloing. The premier group,

the L-5, specializes in jazz, blues, rock and electric-avant-garde. The L-5 has released two CDs,

The Quilt Master (2002) and A Collection of Signs (2006), available through UNT.

VOCALS

Victoria Ricalde

Sasha Garcia

Christiana Schiller

Kay Cruz

Reagan Garza

TRUMPETS

Tyler Jones

Bryant Johnson

SAXOPHONES

Kori Park

Alexander Siler

Ruixin Liu

Natalie Suvarnasuddhi

RHYTHM

Brandon Ortega (guitar)

Anthony Hernandez (guitar)

Max Rubenstein-Miller (piano)

Josh Busby (piano)

Spencer Paulsen (bass)

Asa Nero (drumset)

Jaiyu Cao (drumset)

UNT Regents Professor and Faculty Emeritus

Dan Haerle formed The Zebras in 1980

to give keyboard players a special opportunity

to work with electronic instruments.

The group explores a wide variety of music,

focusing on an eclectic mix of jazz fusion,

funk, soul, and pop, often including a

horn section and vocalists. Some semesters

the Zebras would perform the music

of a particular artist or group, such as Stevie

Wonder, the Pat Metheny Group, Chick

Corea, and Al Jarreau.

Now directed by UNT Jazz Division chair

and Professor of lead trumpet Rob Parton,

the Zebras is an ensemble in the UNT Jazz

Studies division that continues that tradition

of offering students a chance to perform

music they would not experience in

other labs within the College of Music.

The Zebras album The Flamenco Jazz

Project exemplifies the diversity of repertoire

wielded by this outstanding ensemble.

The current focus of the Zebras repertoire

is horn-based bands similar to the

classics such as Tower of Power and Earth,

Wind and Fire, as well as newer contemporary

bands and artists like Bruno Mars.

High-energy performances are what the

Zebras are known to deliver, and that UNT

tradition continues.


37

Meet the UNT

Jazz Studies

Division

The UNT Jazz Studies Division is comprised of

faculty and staff who have devoted themselves to

the betterment of the students they serve and the

experiences they receive.

We also recognize the countless jazz librarians

over the decades who contributed greatly to the

success of the lab band program. Thank you all

for your hard work! Our current students in the

jazz librarian role: Ariel Glassman, Thomas Reilly,

Natalie Suvarnasuddhi and Zachary Williamson.

JAZZ STUDIES DIVISION

39

JAZZ STUDIES FACULTY

José Aponte is a principal lecturer at the University of North

Texas in the Percussion and Jazz Studies departments, where

he teaches drumset and Latin percussion. In addition to his

private lesson studio work, José is the director of UNT’s Afro-

Cuban Ensemble, Brazilian Ensemble, and Latin Jazz Lab Band.

José M. Aponte, a native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, earned

degrees from the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico

(BM), Musicians Institute of Technology in Los Angeles,

California (Artist Diploma), and University of North Texas Jazz

Studies Program (MM). José has performed with such artists

as Giovanni Hidalgo, Emil Richards, Carlos Guedes, Poncho

Sanchez, Batacumbele, Gino Vanelli, Brian Bromberg, Lyle Mays,

Andy Narell, David Rudder, Relator, Fred Hamilton, Dan Haerle,

Tracy Thornton, Lian Teague, Airto Moreira, and Michael Spiro.

JOSÉ M. APONTE

PRINCIPAL LECTURER OF DRUMSET & LATIN PERCUSSION

DIRECTOR OF THE AFRO-CUBAN ENSEMBLE

DIRECTOR OF THE BRAZILIAN ENSEMBLE

DIRECTOR OF THE LATIN JAZZ LAB BAND

Aponte is an active member of the Dallas/Fort Worth musical

scene as a freelance performer and studio musician with

groups such as Fifo and Citizens of the World Colombian

Jazz Group, Fifo and his Afro Bacanos Salsa Band, John

Murphy Jazz Trio, singer/songwriter Tania Cordobes, David

Lee Schloss’s Caravan, Kalimbe World Jazz Group, Island

Boogie Caribbean Band, Justin Cash Jazz Fusion Trio, Tito

Charneco’s Diaspora Jazz Group and his own projects (José

Aponte and Caribe Club Latin Jazz Quintet, Batuque Brazilian

Jazz Trio, and Brasuka Brazilian Jazz Group). José is an artist/

clinician for Pearl drums/percussion, Evans drum heads, Pro-

Mark sticks and Sabian cymbals.

Jennifer Barnes is the Director of Vocal Jazz at UNT, in

addition to being a highly sought-after vocalist, educator,

clinician and arranger throughout the United States

and Canada. She has directed award-winning Vocal

Jazz Ensembles at eight universities, won a 2016 “Jazz

Education Achievement Award” from DownBeat magazine,

has served as a guest conductor for District and All-State

Music Festivals in 16 states, and her vocal arrangements

are published by Sheet Music Plus, Anchor Music, UNC Jazz

Press and at her own website (JenniferBarnesMusic.com).

JENNIFER BARNES

PROFESSOR OF VOCAL JAZZ

DIRECTOR OF VOCAL JAZZ STUDIES

DIRECTOR OF JAZZ SINGERS

40

In addition to her teaching activities, Jennifer is an active

performing and studio vocalist, including her roles as alto

vocalist, composer and arranger for the professional vocal

ensemble Vertical Voices, solo and group vocals for television

shows, video games and films including “World of Warcraft”,

“Wall-E”, “Enchanted”, “Ice Age (2, 3 & 4)” and “Glee”. Ms.

Barnes is a member of the American Society of Composers,

Arrangers and Publishers, Screen Actors Guild and the Jazz

Education Network. She earned the master of music degree

in studio music and jazz performance from the University

of Miami (FL) and the bachelor of music degree in piano

performance from Western Michigan University.



Born and raised in a small town in Southwestern Pennsylvania,

Alan Baylock has composed music that is performed

throughout the world. One of the most respected and soughtafter

jazz composers and educators in the industry today, he

is the director of the multi-Grammy nominated One O’Clock

Lab Band® at the University of North Texas, and previously

served 20 years as chief arranger for the USAF Airmen of Note

in Washington, D.C. The Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra recorded

three critically-acclaimed CDs and performed throughout the

United States for 15 years. Baylock graduated from Shenandoah

University (BME ‘90), where he later became jazz composer-inresidence,

and the University of North Texas (MM ‘94).

ALAN BAYLOCK

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

DIRECTOR OF THE ONE O’CLOCK LAB BAND®

COORDINATOR OF LAB BANDS

Baylock travels extensively as guest conductor and clinician,

and has been featured with close to 100 professional,

collegiate, high school (all-state and regional) and middle

school jazz ensembles. Alan is on faculty at the National

Jazz Workshop (NJW) and directed the NJW All-Star Big

Band in performances on the East and West Coast. Thanks

to the Nu Psi Chapter, Alan became an honorary member

of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 2016 and became an honorary

member of Kappa Kappa Psi (Kappa Epsilon Chapter) in

2017. He is an active member of the Jazz Education Network

and is a strong advocate for women in jazz.

Baylock lives in Denton, Texas with his wife, cellist Maria

Baylock. In his spare time, Alan enjoys playing table tennis

and golfing with his UNT Jazz colleagues.

Rodney Booth has been an active professional musician for over

50 years. A native of El Paso, Texas, he began his professional

career at age sixteen as a trumpet player in his father’s bands.

He received his degree in jazz studies at the University of North

Texas and was a student of Don “Jake” Jacoby. Rodney was

also member of the renowned North Texas State One O’Clock

Lab Band®. He traveled across North and South America and

Europe with Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd Big Band. He has

performed with many major recording artists such as Lou Rawls,

Nancy Wilson, Wayne Newton, Michael Feinstein, Dionne Warwick,

Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Hamlisch, Natalie Cole, Jimmy Cobb, Curtis

Fuller, Roy Haynes and The Who, just to name a few. Rodney has

performed in over 40 different Broadway shows.

Rodney is very active in studio and commercial recordings. He

can be heard on national commercials for the Fina Corporation,

Texaco, McDonald’s Corporation, Domino’s, Miller Brewing

Company and Chevrolet. In addition, he performed on the

commercial recordings for the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red

Sox, CNN News, the United States Postal Service and many more.

His various bands have been chosen to perform for companies

such as Exxon, Honda, Budweiser, the Zales Corporation, Gordon’s

Jewelers, Merle Norman Company and Cartier’s Jewelers.

Rodney has taught at the University of North Texas for the last

seventeen years teaching improvisation, ear training, and jazz trumpet

lessons. He has been the director of the UNT Jazz Repertory Ensemble

and he directed the UNT Jazz Singers in the fall 2010 and spring 2011.

Rodney directed the Two O’Clock Lab Band for five years (2015-2019).

RODNEY BOOTH

PRINCIPAL LECTURER OF JAZZ TRUMPET

Rodney’s CD Look Over There features his jazz quartet. His CD Ten and

One features Swing and Big Band music. It was released in January

2010 and has been featured on radio shows from South Africa to

Argentina. His duo CD with pianist Bill Lohr will be released this year.


41


Quincy Davis, currently an associate professor of jazz

drumset at the University of North Texas, studied classical

percussion at Interlochen Arts Academy. He continued his

undergraduate studies at Western Michigan University in

1999 studying with the master drummer Billy Hart. He lived

in New York City from 2000-2010 where he played with

many world-renowned artists like Bobby Watson, Benny

Green, Tom Harrell, Hank Jones and many more.

In 2010, Davis accepted a teaching position at the University

of Manitoba where he was the assistant professor of jazz

drumset. Quincy has two leader albums: Songs in the Key

of Q and Q Visions. Both albums rose to the top three

rankings on JazzWeek’s jazz radio charts. Quincy earned a

QUINCY DAVIS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JAZZ PERCUSSION

master’s degree in composition from the Vermont College

of Fine Arts in 2019 and continues to work and travel with

world renowned musicians.

Richard DeRosa is the Director of Jazz Composition and

Arranging. In 2015 he received a Grammy nomination for Best

Instrumental Composition for his big band composition “Neil”

which is dedicated to Neil Slater. In 2022, the UNT Studio Orchestra

premiered his eight-movement work titled Life in Poetry and

Music which featured Kurt Elling. Since 2001, Mr. DeRosa has

arranged and conducted music for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz

at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Recent concert programs include

Bernstein at 100 and Joey Alexander with Strings.

Since 2012 Mr. DeRosa has conducted and arranged music for

the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany. CD recordings include

My Personal Songbook (2015) featuring legendary jazz bassist

Ron Carter, Rediscovered Ellington (2017) featuring Garry Dial

and Dick Oatts and Crossing Borders featuring Richie Beirach

and Gregor Huebner. Other concert projects featured Patti

Austin, Kurt Elling, Stefon Harris, the New York Voices, Ola Onabulé,

Joshua Redman, Marvin Stamm and Bill Mays and Warren Vaché.

RICHARD DEROSA

PROFESSOR OF JAZZ COMPOSITION & ARRANGING

DIRECTOR OF THE THREE O’CLOCK LAB BAND

42

Other arrangements have been recorded by the Mel Lewis, Gerry

Mulligan, and Glenn Miller big bands, vocalist Susannah McCorkle,

trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers.

Commissioned arrangements for orchestra include the Kansas

City Symphony, Houston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New

York Pops, Portland Maine Pops, Czech National Symphony,

Metropole Orchestra and the Swedish Television and Radio

Orchestra.

Mr. DeRosa’s publications for jazz ensembles are available

through Sierra Music, Alfred Music, Barnhouse Music and e-Jazz

Lines. He remains active as an adjudicator and clinician. More

information can be found at www.richderosa.com.



Philip Dizack is one of the most important and versatile jazz

trumpeters of his generation, fulfilling DownBeat magazine’s 2007

proclamation “[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future.”

In 2019, Dizack joined Israeli-born pianist Shai Maestro’s newly

expanded quartet. The band’s subsequent album, Human, was

released on the ECM label in January of 2021 to critical acclaim.

Philip was also a featured soloist on the 2021 recording Assembly

of Shadows by Remy Le Boeuf which received two Grammy©

nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and Best

Instrumental Arrangement.

PHILIP DIZACK

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ TRUMPET -

IMPROVISATION EMPHASIS

COORDINATOR OF JAZZ CHAMBER MUSIC

In his late teens and early twenties, Dizack was mentored in the

tradition through his time performing, touring and recording with

Jazz Messenger Bobby Watson and eight-time Grammy© winner

and Latin Jazz legend Eddie Palmieri. He has since performed

and recorded alongside an extremely wide array of musicians

unencumbered by generation or genre - in clubs, concert halls,

arenas, stadiums and on television and films in over 25 countries.

A truncated list of artists includes Wycliffe Gordon, Thundercat,

Nicholas Payton, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Immanuel

Wilkins, Kamasi Washington, Aaron Parks, Ben Wendel, Melissa

Aldana, Greg Tardy, Myron Walden, Jon Batiste, Morrissey,

Foreigner, Robert Redford and many more.

In 2019, alongside touring and performing, Philip was appointed

assistant professor of jazz trumpet at the University of North

Texas. Philip Dizack has released three solo albums and has been

featured on over 35 albums as a supporting member.

With an international presence in several facets of the music

industry, Rosana Eckert wears many hats as a versatile live

and studio vocalist, dynamic improviser, creative songwriter

and arranger and a lauded educator of jazz and voice. She has

performed and recorded with many jazz luminaries, including

Christian McBride, Bobby McFerrin, Kenny Wheeler and the

New York Voices. Recently she was one of the three vocalists

on the 2021 Grammy Award-winning composition Eberhard

by legendary jazz pianist Lyle Mays. Rosana’s latest solo

album, Sailing Home, was praised as “bright and innovative”

(AllAboutJazz) and “alluring” (Jazz Weekly), and in 2021, her

Brazilian jazz fusion band, Brasuka, released their debut

album of original songs titled A Vida Com Paixão. Celebrated

as “addictively joyful” (Exclusive Magazine) and “positively

infectious” (The Big Takeaway), the album received 4 stars in

DownBeat magazine, was featured in Jazz Times magazine and

made several “Best of 2021” lists.

ROSANA ECKERT

PRINCIPAL LECTURER OF VOCAL JAZZ


Rosana is also a member of the Mike Steinel Quintet, utilizing

her instrumental background to vocally function like an alto

saxophone. The group’s second album of original music Saving

Charlie Parker was released in September 2022. An alumna of

UNT, Rosana was the first woman and first minority added to its

esteemed jazz faculty in 1999, helping build its renowned vocal

jazz program. Her many published arrangements, original songs,

and educational resources, including her method book Singing

with Expression, are used by singers worldwide. In addition to her

live performing, writing and teaching, Rosana works regularly as

a studio vocalist, producer and voice-over actor.

43


Nick Finzer is one of the most dynamic musicians of

the millennial generation. An award-winning trombonist,

composer, producer, entrepreneur, and educator, Finzer

is bringing the joy and power of Jazz to traditional fans

and the most modern 21st century audiences. He’s on a

mission to be a passionate voice defining the sound of

Jazz in this age.

NICK FINZER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ TROMBONE

Never satisfied with just one singular path Finzer can be

found on stages all over the world with the likes of the

Grammy nominated Anat Cohen Tentet, leading his own

band Hear & Now through their most recent critically

acclaimed album Cast of Characters (Outside in Music,

2020), topping DownBeat magazine’s 2020 “Rising Star

Trombone” Category of their Critics Poll, producing albums

and videos for his record label Outside in Music, educating

the next generation of musicians as the inaugural assistant

professor of jazz trombone at the renowned University

of North Texas and maintaining a robust presence on

his YouTube channel/social media sharing resources on

trombone, jazz education and music marketing.

With a unique style and sound, which echoes the

influences of his past, Brad Leali is one of the most

notable saxophonists of current times. Leali has toured

and recorded with numerous jazz greats, including several

years with the Harry Connick Jr. Orchestra and with the

Count Basie Orchestra. Leali was a standing member of the

Kennedy Center Honors Band and performed for President

Obama’s inaugural celebration.

Brad has had a long-time endorsement with Keilwerth

Saxophones and D’Addario Reeds. Currently the Professor

of Jazz Saxophone at UNT, Brad continues to perform

domestically and abroad, including touring with Lyle Lovett

& His Large Band. See www.bradleali.com/press-kit/ for

videos and more information.

“His solos are sparkling and Cannonball Adderley

influenced.”- Evening Standard (London, England).

BRAD LEALI

PROFESSOR OF JAZZ SAXOPHONE

44

“ Saxophonist Brad Leali was among the most soulful and

exciting I’ve heard recently.” - New York Times



Federico Llach is a Latino creative musician whose music has

been described as “a thought-provoking demonstration of

multidimensionality” and “a piece of art that proves that life is

profoundly beautiful and disturbing at the same time”. Credits

in experimental and commercial music have found outlets in

internationally recognized orchestras and ensembles, international

jazz festivals, AR apps, award-winning films and commercial

pieces for global brands such as Coca-Cola and Yonex.

Llach has performed or presented music in dozens of countries

at venues of such geographical and aesthetic diversity as

Festival Internacional de Jazz Buenos Aires, Bang on a Can

Summer Festival and Darmstadt Ferienkurse. He has received

awards and scholarships from Styria Artist in Residency, Paul

Sacher Stiftung, Los Angeles County, Orquesta Sinfónica

Nacional Argentina, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, University of

California Institute for Research in the Arts, Borchard Foundation

and UCSB Humanities and Social Sciences.

FEDERICO LLACH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMMERCIAL MUSIC

Musically raised in Buenos Aires as a double bass jazz performer,

music for media producer and classical composer, his music

combines the energy of popular music studio production with

the intimacy of acoustic instruments and innovative sound

design. His sound draws from a wide range of experiences

with jazz music, songwriting bands, Argentine rock, tango,

orchestras, modular synthesizers, samplers and electronics

of all kinds. Llach holds degrees from Escuela de Música

Contemporánea/Berklee Global Partner (2003), Universidad

Nacional del Arte (BM, 2009), University of California, Santa

Barbara (MA 2013; PhD 2017) and has produced research

published by Cambridge University journal Tempo.

Pianist, composer, and educator Dave Meder is one

of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a

broad musical palette and interdisciplinary approach

recognized in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz

Piano Competition, the American Pianists Awards, and the

Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning

program. Beyond the accolades, his defining aesthetic

is a strikingly postmodern sense of stylistic adventure,

incorporating what All About Jazz describes as “a vibrant

hybrid of the whole American spectrum.”

DAVE MEDER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ PIANO


His first album Passage was counted among the top five

jazz debuts in the Ottawa Citizen and was included in the

annual “Favorite Jazz Albums” list from All Music Guide,

noted for its skillful balancing of “post-bop harmonies

with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical

sophistication.” His recent release Unamuno Songs and

Stories uses the works of Spanish Civil War-era philosopher

Miguel de Unamuno to respond to sociopolitical turmoil

in the United States. Meder has headlined stages or

conducted educational residencies at Jazz at Lincoln

Center, The Kennedy Center, as well as internationally in

Beijing, Tokyo, São Paulo and most recently Egypt as a

United States Fulbright Scholar. Dave is a Yamaha Artist

and a professor at University of North Texas.

45


Davy Mooney is a jazz guitarist from New Orleans who

records for Sunnyside Records and is Assistant Professor

of Jazz Studies and head of the jazz guitar program at the

University of North Texas, where he teaches private lessons

and advanced jazz improvisation.

He has recorded seven CDs as a leader. His latest Sunnyside

CD, Davy Mooney and the Hope of Home Band Live at National

Sawdust, was recorded live in Brooklyn, NY in January 2020

with Brian Blade, Jon Cowherd, John Ellis, and Matt Clohesy.

His other Sunnyside releases are 2018’s Benign Strangers,

2017’s Hope of Home, and 2012’s Perrier St. In promotion of

these CDs, Mooney has toured the United States, as well as

Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Peru and Myanmar.

Mooney has two books published by Mel Bay: Personalizing

Jazz Vocabulary (2019) and Into the Labyrinth: An Anatomy

of Position Playing for Jazz Guitar (2022). Mooney has a PhD

in jazz performance from New York University, and wrote a

dissertation on the early 1960s work of Joe Pass entitled “Joe

Pass’s Catch Me!, For Django, and Joy Spring: Transcription

and Analysis.” He competed in the 2005 Thelonious Monk

International Guitar Competition, placing third, and studied

at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance from

2007 to 2009, under artistic director Terence Blanchard.

DAVY MOONEY

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ GUITAR

Mooney received his master’s degree from the University of New

Orleans in 2005. In 2006 he recorded a duo guitar CD with John

Pizzarelli entitled Last Train Home. The following year he recorded

Astoriano, released on the Japanese label LateSet Records.

Born in Miami, FL Jessica Muñiz-Collado is a music consultant,

composer/producer, percussionist, and an Assistant Professor

of Music Business at the University of North Texas. She is also the

founder/owner of NIZCO MUSIC – a music career consulting service

that helps musicians compose their careers to their own B.E.A.T. Her

company offers services in music career planning, music curriculum

development, music technology training and artist development.

Jessica has presented multiple times at the National Association

of Music Merchants (NAMM)/ GenNext Conference, the Association

of Popular Music Education (APME) Conference, the National

Association for College Admission Counseling’s Performing Arts

Fair and presented at the international music conference LeRock

& L’Amour held at the Université Paul-Valery in Montpellier, France.

In addition to speaking on music income opportunities at various

colleges/universities and multimedia conferences, Jessica serves

on The Recording Academy’s education committee (TX Chapter)

and is an Academy voting member. She is NAMM/College Music

Society Fellow grant recipient, and also serves as a music technology

judge for the Hit Like A Girl-Beats By Girlz International Beatmaking

Contest where she once was an award-winner in 2019.

JESSICA MUÑIZ-COLLADO

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC BUSINESS

As a composer/producer, she has created music for numerous

production companies and music libraries including MundoFOX,

Univision, PBS, IMAX and Universal Production Music to name a few.

She is also a published and commissioned composer with both

national and international performances of her work and works as a

sound designer for theater and dance mediums. As a percussionist,

Jessica has had the privilege to perform and/or record with

numerous Grammy-nominated musicians and world-renowned

artists. She has been featured in Music Connection magazine, Digital

Drummer magazine and the Percussive Arts Society’s Percussive

Notes magazine. To learn more about Jessica, please visit www.

nizcomusic.com.

46



Rob Parton is Associate Professor of Jazz Trumpet and Chair of

the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas where

he also directs the Two O’Clock Lab Band. Prior to joining the

faculty at UNT, he held positions at Capital University, Roosevelt

University, and Chicago State University. A dedicated jazz

educator, he has directed All-State Jazz Ensembles in twelve

states as well as serving as a clinician at universities and high

schools throughout the United States.

A versatile and in-demand trumpet player, Parton has been

called on to perform or record the music of diverse composers

from Karel Husa to Leonard Bernstein to Duke Ellington. He has

performed with many of America’s major orchestras including

the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New York

Philharmonic, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.

He has also performed as lead trumpet on numerous Broadway

shows in the Midwest and with Grammy, Tony, and Academy Awardwinning

artists from Faith Hill to Natalie Cole to Tony Bennett. As a

recording artist, he has performed on hundreds of recordings for

national commercials and with various artists on Concord, Verity,

Mark Records, Sea Breeze and Sony record labels.

ROB PARTON

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JAZZ TRUMPET –

LEAD TRUMPET EMPHASIS

DIRECTOR OF THE TWO O’CLOCK LAB BAND

CHAIR OF THE DIVISION OF JAZZ STUDIES

While comfortable in various musical settings, be it jazz trio or brass

quintet or as a soloist with larger ensembles, leading a professional big

band is the area in which he has enjoyed the most acclaim. Founded

in 1984, the Rob Parton Big Band has released eleven recordings,

performed at the Midwest Clinic three times, at the International

Trumpet Guild Conference and at numerous jazz festivals featuring

guest artists such as Lew Soloff, Conte Candoli and Joe Williams.

Dozens of the band’s recordings and live videos can be found on

YouTube.

Regents Professor Lynn Seaton has an active career in

performing and recording that co-exists with teaching young

professionals. His work at the University of North Texas began

in 1998 following thirteen years of a professional career based

in New York City. Professor Seaton has performed with worldrenowned

jazz musicians including Woody Herman, the Count

Basie Orchestra led by Thad Jones then Frank Foster, Tony

Bennett, George Shearing, Diane Schuur, Tim Hagans, Maria

Schneider, Jeff Hamilton, John Fedchock, Kenny Drew Jr., Bobby

Shew, Joe Williams and Monty Alexander. Seaton has performed

in thirty-five countries and forty-nine states. Recording credits

include over one-hundred-twenty-five albums or CDs including

one Grammy and two Grammy nominations. Recordings under

his leadership, Solo Flights, Bassman’s Basement, Live!!!, Puttin’

on the Ritz and Zoom Blewz received notable recognition.

Forty-six recordings have been released since Seaton’s arrival

at the University of North Texas. The significance of his career

is recognized in magazine reviews and history books including:

The Grove Dictionary of Music, The Penguin Guide to Jazz, The

Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz, Leonard Feather’s Encyclopedia of

Jazz and several references in The All Music Guide.

LYNN SEATON

REGENTS PROFESSOR OF JAZZ BASS


Seaton’s honors and awards include teaching and performing

in Riga, Latvia as a Fulbright Scholar, induction into the

Cincinnati, Ohio and Oklahoma Jazz Halls of Fame, and

nominations as Sammons Artist of the Year and Sigma Alpha

Iota National Arts Associate. Alumni of Professor Seaton’s are

university professors, bandleaders, Broadway performers,

military band members, touring Jazz, Hip Hop & Pop artists

and Grammy awardees.

47


Kimberly Hannon Teal joined the faculty at UNT in

August of 2021 as assistant professor of jazz history and

research. Her work addresses contemporary jazz, and she

is interested in how live performance contexts contribute

to musical experiences and meaning. Her book Jazz

Places: How Performance Spaces Shape Jazz History was

published by the University of California Press in 2021.

She holds a PhD in historical musicology from the Eastman

School of Music, where she also taught music history and

served as the Director of Graduate Advising. Her writing

can be found in American Music, Jazz Perspectives, The

Journal of the Society for American Music, Jazz Education

in Research and Practice and Jazz Research Journal.

KIMBERLY HANNON TEAL

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ HISTORY & RESEARCH

Prior to working at UNT, she was an assistant professor of

musicology at the University of Arkansas.

Scott Tixier is a five-time GRAMMY affiliated award-winning

violinist and 2018 DownBeat Critic Poll Winner. He has

performed in major venues across the world including The

Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, The Paris Philharmonie,

Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Jazz at Lincoln

Center, The Blue Note in New York, The Apollo Theater,

The Hollywood Bowl, Shanghai Conservatory Of Music and

United States Capitol.

He has performed, recorded and toured with jazz legends

and music icons such as Stevie Wonder, Kenny Barron, Elton

John, Pink Floyd, Ed Sheeran, Cassandra Wilson, Coldplay,

Chris Potter, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Natalie Cole,

Anthony Braxton, Ariana Grande and many others.

SCOTT TIXIER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF JAZZ VIOLIN

COORDINATOR OF JAZZ PERFORMANCE

FUNDAMENTALS FOR STRINGS I & II

DIRECTOR OF THE JAZZ STRINGS LAB

In addition to performing in and out of the jazz world, Tixier

is known for his work on motion picture scores such as The

Lion King, John Wick, Charlie’s Angels and TV shows including

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, The Late Show

with Stephen Colbert as well as the previous format with

David Letterman, Late Night with Seth Meyers, America’s

Got Talent and most recently with Netflix for Spike Lee’s new

film in collaboration with composer Terence Blanchard as

well as Warner Bros for Father of the Bride.


Reflecting on a Career at North Texas

By Craig Marshall

The jazz studies program at UNT is unlike any other. One

of the many ways it differs from the rest is its sheer size—in

number of jazz majors, jazz faculty, formal ensembles, and

schedule of performances on and off campus. To meet

the organizational challenges of such a large jazz division,

North Texas has both a lab band manager and an administrative

coordinator. These two staff positions cover a

wide range of duties, each in concert with the other to keep

things running smoothly in the jazz division. This is both a

necessity and a luxury that smaller jazz programs, where

the director would typically handle most or all of this themselves,

don’t enjoy.

My responsibilities broadly include assisting with auditions,

the scheduling and production of concerts on and off campus,

managing tours and festival appearances, producing

albums and facilitating digital distribution for the North

Texas Jazz label, and overseeing the jazz chart library and

jazz division instruments and gear.

At this writing I am in my 27th year in this role. It’s an interesting

moment for me as I come to the realization that my

mentor Neil Slater served 27 years as director of the One

O’Clock Lab Band® and jazz division chair (1981—2008); it’s

been 27 years since I last performed with the One O’Clock

Lab Band in the trombone section, and that year’s album,

Lab ’94, is precisely halfway between today and the very

first studio lab album, Lab ’67. I’m now the same age that

Neil Slater was when I first met him. He led the jazz program

for another 20 years after that! The passage of time certainly

brings with it perspective.

I’ve learned a lot from my peers and colleagues since arriving

in Denton as an undergraduate transfer student in 1987.

Across three decades I’ve served as a thread of continuity

working alongside three division chairs, four One O’Clock

directors, five jazz division administrative assistants/coordinators,

and over thirty jazz faculty. As the unofficial historian

and keeper of institutional knowledge, I apply this experience

to inform our stewardship and provide perspective

on decisions that impact the future of the program.

The One O’Clock Lab Band is truly one of a kind, at once

a professional ensemble performing at the height of jazz

artistry and yet still a group of college students attending

classes. The flagship of the jazz program, it represents UNT

in a capacity unparalleled by its peers, because in a way

it truly has none. No other college jazz band enjoys the

status of regularly headlining jazz festivals, music conferences

and jazz clubs around the world, commanding

performance fees rather than applying for participation or

competing with other schools. With seven Grammy nominations

and counting, we treat the band as a professional

organization. The expectation of excellence permeates

everything—the way rehearsals are held, concerts are presented,

tours are organized, and albums are recorded.

Having been in the band provides me the insight to manage

it in a way that best honors the level of commitment

and artistry that elevated these students’ musicianship to

the degree required to make the cut. Students who earn

a spot in the One enjoy special opportunities, but also

experience the pressure and responsibility to honor and

respect the legacy of those who have graced those chairs

before them—to perform at the level of excellence that is

in the tradition. Just as coal under intense pressure forms a

diamond, the mutual bond and lifelong friendships formed

along the journey shape the facets of each band member.

Such friendships and countless memorable shared experiences,

both on stage and off, are what I treasure the most

from my decades-long career performing with and managing

the One O’Clock Lab Band and being part of the North

Texas Jazz community. It’s been an honor to serve.


49

JAZZ STUDIES STAFF

Craig Marshall has served as manager of the Jazz Studies

Division at UNT since 1995. Marshall earned degrees in

jazz studies from UNT, where he is now manager of the

lab bands and producer for the North Texas Jazz record

label. As former trombonist in the UNT One O’Clock Lab

Band, Marshall appeared on six CDs, including the Grammynominated

composition “Values” by Neil Slater on Lab ‘91,

and the commemorative box set North Texas Jazz: Fifty

Years that he also co-produced. Three additional Grammy

nominations were awarded for Lab 2009 and Lab 2015, where

Craig was producer. His production of the landmark tribute

CD collections honoring Neil Slater, Jim Riggs, Jay Saunders,

and Rich DeRosa (to commemorate 70 years of jazz at North

Texas) are unique milestones in the history of this storied

jazz program. As a performer and record producer, Craig

Marshall’s credits include more than half of the entire North

Texas Jazz catalog, with nearly 50 albums on his discography.

CRAIG MARSHALL

PROGRAM MANAGER FOR JAZZ LAB BAND

ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR - JAZZ STUDIES

Marshall served as festival manager/director/co-founder of

the North Texas Jazz Festival in Addison from 2001–2009,

and has solidified a presence in Dallas and Fort Worth for the

One O’Clock Lab Band through his establishment of ongoing

concert series now in their second or third decade. His duties

include managing the One O’Clock Lab Band, including

domestic and international tours, CD & DVD recording projects,

on-campus and off-campus concerts and concert series

production, and assisting with publicity, marketing, and media

relations. Craig continues to be a crucial link to our numerous

jazz studies alumni over the past 30 years.

Texan musician Madison Russell explores introspection

and perception of others through performance and

composition with a blend of styles. Utilizing a crystalclear,

unique, and versatile vocal tone, Madison is able

to convey a wide range of emotion. She explores the

subtleties and intricacies of the human condition through

sounds that craftily mix folk, rock, and jazz influences.

With roots in classical and jazz music, Madison has been

performing and writing music of various genres since

childhood. She studied classical voice, jazz voice, opera,

and percussion while studying at Booker T. Washington

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In

2015, she was named a Winner in Jazz Voice with the

National YoungArts Foundation. Madison then attended

the University of North Texas, where she was named

Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Jazz Studies

after earning a bachelor’s degree in 2019. She went on

to earn a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies

in 2020 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in

library science.

MADISON RUSSELL

ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR

DIVISION OF JAZZ STUDIES

50

Madison performs as a live and session vocalist

professionally across the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She

performs as a soloist and ensemble member in choirs,

small groups such as Lydian Blue, and alternative rock

bands such as Modern Modem. She is currently writing

for her first official release as a solo artist.


JAZZ STUDIES STAFF

As any student who has ever been in the jazz studies office will attest, the jazz studies staff

is their primary point of contact, the face of the jazz program, and the people who have a

major impact on how they experience being a student in the jazz program at North Texas.

Every jazz division chair has recognized that the work of the jazz studies staff has been

essential to achieving the goals of the division and keeping the program running. We

acknowledge and thank those who have held these roles, and whose dedicated work

has made such a positive impact on thousands of alumni of the North Texas Jazz Studies

program over these many decades.

JAZZ DIVISION SECRETARIES,

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS & COORDINATORS

CINDY KAMENITSA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1974 – 1978

CARLA KRUGER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1978 – 1981

LORI THIESSE---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1981 – 1982

LISA FISCHER--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1982 – 1985

BRYANT COLEMAN-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1985 – 1988

JANET NELSON------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1988 – 1989

DARLA MAYES----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1990 – 2011

JULIE BICE-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2011 – 2013

KATY KINARD---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2013 – 2016

CHRISTOPHER WALKER-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 – 2021

MADISON RUSSELL---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2021 – Present

LAB BAND STAFF ASSISTANTS & MANAGERS

JOEL SEARS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1964 – 1967

CHARLES HACKETT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------1967 – 1976

KENNETH ELLIOTT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1971 – 1975

J. FRANK LIVELY------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1975 – 1977

RON BERGAN---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1977 – 1978

BOBBY KNIGHT--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1978 – 1983

PHILIP BROWN-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1983 – 1990

MIKE BOGLE------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1991 – 1995

CRAIG MARSHALL----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1995 – Present

CURRENT JAZZ LIBRARIAN STUDENTS

Ariel Glassman, Thomas Reilly, Natalie Suvarnasuddhi & Zachary Williamson

We graciously recognize the countless jazz librarians over the decades who contributed greatly to the

success of the lab band program, both in keeping the bands in playable charts and assisting with hundreds

of concerts, special events and tours along the way. Carting gear, setting up and running sound systems,

serving as stage crew, helping with merchandice sales... you name it. Thank you all for your hard work!


51

PROGRAM CREDITS

NORTH TEXAS JAZZ 75 TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION

EVENT PRODUCER

Craig Marshall

EVENT COMMITTEE

Jennifer Barnes, Alan Baylock, Rosana Eckert, Craig Marshall, Rob Parton, Madison Russell

EVENT PRODUCTION

Madison Russell, Administrative Coordinator for Jazz Studies

Derek Miller, Audio Technical Director, Front of House Engineer

Michael Vazquez, Monitor Engineer

Julie Hohman, Lighting Technical Director

Austin Martinez, Director of Recording Services, Recording & Live Stream

Jake Chaffee, Music Performance Technician, Recording & Live Stream

Jordan Batson, MPAC Building Operations

Destiny Andrews, Assistant Director for Event Management, Box Office

EVENT PROGRAM

Matt Hellman, Graphic Design Specialist, Program Design & Photography

Linda Strube, College of Music Programs, Copy Proofreading

Matt Hardman, Director of Communications, Marketing & Public Relations

Maristella Feustle, Music Special Collections Librarian, Archival Photo Curator

Kimberly Hannon Teal, Assistant Professor of Jazz History & Research, Historical Essay Editor

EVENT ASSISTANCE

Michael Clements, Photography

Vickie Napier, Budget & Purchasing Officer

Joel Wiley, Director of Admissions, College of Music Ambassadors

Amanda Miller, Concert & Event Scheduling Coordinator

Bailey Garrison, Catering Coordinator, Verde Dining Services

Courtney Burke, Assistant Director of Events, Gateway Center

Daniel Suda, Director of Affinity Programming, Alumni Relations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Mike Steinel, Event Planning Guidance

Ian Calhoun, Jazz Archival Organization

Jeff Bowerman, Groggy Dog, Merchandise

Jayna Whitehead, General Manager, UNT Bookstore

Steve Severance, Proprietor, Steve’s Wine Bar, Receptions

Darla Mayes, Carla Kruger, Philip Brown, Mike Bogle, Charles Hackett, Historical References

52


UNT ADMINISTRATION

UNT SYSTEM

MICHAEL R. WILLIAMS

Chancellor

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

NEAL SMATRESK

President

MICHAEL MCPHERSON

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

JOHN W. RICHMOND

Professor and Dean

WARREN HENRY-------------------------------------- Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

FELIX OLSCHOFKA--------------------------------------------------- Associate Dean for Operations

EMILITA MARIN-------------------------------------------- Assistant Dean for Business and Finance

RAYMOND ROWELL------------------------ Assistant Dean for Scholarships and External Affairs

KIRSTEN BROBERG---------------------------------------------- Director of Undergraduate Studies

JAYMEE HAEFNER------------------------------------------------------- Director of Graduate Studies

BENJAMIN BRAND-------------- Chair, Division of Music History, Theory and Ethnomusicology

MOLLY FILLMORE----------------------------------------------------- Chair, Division of Vocal Studies

STEVEN HARLOS------------------------------------------------- Chair, Division of Keyboard Studies

JOSEPH KLEIN------------------------------------------------ Chair, Division of Composition Studies

KIMBERLY COLE LUEVANO--------------------------------- Chair, Division of Instrumental Studies

ROB PARTON------------------------------------------------------------ Chair, Division of Jazz Studies

SEAN POWELL------------------------------------------------------Chair, Division of Music Education

ANDREW TRACHSEL---------------------------------Chair, Division of Conducting and Ensembles

CYRIEL AERTS-------------------------------------------------------------------Director, Piano Services

CREDITS

MATT HARDMAN---------------------Director, Communications, Marketing and Public Relations

AUSTIN MARTINEZ------------------------------------------------------- Director, Recording Services

CAROL POLLARD---------------------------------------------------Director, Undergraduate Advising

JOEL WILEY-------------------------------------------------------------------------Director, Admissions

MARIA BAYLOCK------- Executive Administrative Assistant to the Dean of the College of Music

MATT HELLMAN----------------------------------------- Program Design, Graphic Design Specialist


53

STAY

MEAN GREEN

FOR LIFE!

JOIN THE

UNT ALUMNI

ASSOCIATION

UNTAlumni.com

940-565-2834

alumni@unt.edu

2022 Jazz 75th Anniversary Reunion Program

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