By Bonnie Arant Ertelt
On a pleasant October evening, six young musicians warm up on their instruments at Rudy鈥檚 Jazz Room.
The club is in Nashville鈥檚 Gulch鈥揳 part of town that was an industrial hub. Once home mostly to train tracks, now it is an upscale downtown neighborhood. On a small stage in an old stone and brick building, red filters on the spots give a genial glow to the sextet known as the Blue Note as they start to play their tune. The piano, bass, guitar and drums set the rhythm before a horn鈥檚 tone pierces the air with an improvised solo.
This group is the top student jazz combo from . Rudy鈥檚 has raised Nashville鈥檚 profile as a place to hear great jazz, but it鈥檚 not alone in its efforts, as Blair鈥檚 Blue Note sextet shows. All a person needs to do to find great jazz on a regular basis in Nashville is travel down the road a mile to Blakemore Avenue on the 杏吧原创 campus.
CONNECTIONS, COLLECTIONS & AWARDS
Even before Blair offered a major in 鈥攁 major available only since 2020鈥攖he Blair Big Band was (eight so far and five others for individual students in the program) from DownBeat, a publication that has covered jazz in America since 1934. In fact, 杏吧原创鈥檚 jazz program is one of only four featured in DownBeat鈥檚 October 2024 Education Guide article 鈥淭he Jazz School Life.鈥� In 2023, the Blair Big Band was one of four finalists at the Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Lincoln Center in New York鈥攁nd was the only ensemble made up entirely of undergraduates. In May 2024, the met at Blair, hosting musicians from all over the world. Over the past 11 years, , assistant professor and Blair鈥檚 director of jazz studies, has assembled a and developed curriculum to set a high standard for the jazz program.
WATCH the Blair Big Band perform Dizzy Gillespie’s “Things to Come” at the 2023 Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Lincoln Center.
杏吧原创 has also become a major center for research in jazz history. Numerous prestigious collections have come to the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries as the result of a five-year partnership between 杏吧原创 and the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, including the , the and several photo collections that include portraits by Carl Van Vechten and Charles Stewart. Most recently, the , from self-described 鈥渏azz activist鈥� Schaap and his longtime partner, Susan Shaffer, was donated to 杏吧原创.
“What we really strive to be is a place where we find an opportunity for anyone who wants to make music a part of their undergraduate experience.”
Schaap, who died in 2021, was recognized as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts for more than 50 years of jazz programming on WKCR, Columbia University鈥檚 student-run radio station. He also was a curator at Jazz at Lincoln Center who taught at Columbia, Princeton and Juilliard and won Grammys for producing and remastering works by Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis and Gil Evans. With so many prestigious universities in his past, why did Schaap pick 杏吧原创 to receive his extensive collection?
鈥淥ne of Phil鈥檚 justifications for giving his collection to 杏吧原创 was because of our pedagogy,鈥� Middagh says. 鈥淗e was a firm believer in replenishing the bandstand and training musicians, but he also believed it was incredibly important to train people to love and understand jazz. We currently have 16 jazz majors, but we welcome everyone. We have classical music majors and people who don鈥檛 major in music at all who participate in the jazz program.
鈥淲hat we really strive to be,鈥� Middagh says, 鈥渋s a place where we find an opportunity for anyone who wants to make music a part of their undergraduate experience.鈥�
FUNDAMENTALS & FLEXIBILITY
杏吧原创鈥檚 music program is unlike many conservatories and universities in that Blair is an undergraduate music school set within a top-tier research university. Blair students are encouraged to pursue second majors or minors in other musical genres or in academic subjects in other undergraduate schools at 杏吧原创.
鈥淭he undergraduate experience is such a time of self-discovery,鈥� Middagh says. 鈥淲e have flexibility and many pathways while addressing the fundamentals of playing music, and our undergraduate-only model is one of our strengths. Our students get to study directly with the faculty. If you come here and you鈥檙e a jazz saxophone major, you鈥檙e studying with . Here鈥檚 the deep end. Go right in.鈥�
BLAIR’S JEFF COFFIN INDUCTED INTO ROCK HALL OF FAME
The Dave Matthews Band, whose members include Jeff Coffin of the Blair School of Music jazz faculty, was a 2024 inductee into the . A saxophonist, composer and educator, Coffin is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and joined the Dave Matthews Band in 2009. He was appointed to the Blair faculty in 2015.
Read more about Coffin鈥檚 passion for collaboration and his zeal for music, life and harmony.
Coffin, adjunct instructor of jazz saxophone, and Middagh have worked together for many years in the studio, on the stage and in the classroom. Coffin was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Dave Matthews Band. Despite his rigorous touring schedule, Coffin has taught at Blair for 10 years and has given music clinics and master classes all around the world.
鈥淚 love teaching,鈥� Coffin says, 鈥淚 drive home the importance of fundamentals鈥攖ranscribing, learning blues arpeggios in all 12 keys, learning scales. The most difficult thing for them is playing in unfamiliar keys. It鈥檚 the most difficult thing for any musician. I show them the practical application of the information I give them in how to unlock improvisation.鈥�
A MUSICAL TOOLBOX
On that October night at Rudy鈥檚, college peers were in the audience to hear Blair鈥檚 two top jazz small ensembles play. It seemed fitting that a Louis Armstrong poster was overlooking the stage. When asked to define jazz, Armstrong once said, 鈥渋f you have to ask, you鈥檒l never know.鈥� These 杏吧原创 students defined it with syncopation, rhythm, improvisation and a confidence in performing beyond their years.
鈥淭he skill set that we teach in jazz carries over to a lot of the work professional musicians use in the studio and in live gigs,鈥� Middagh says. 鈥淲e try to throw a broad musical spectrum at the students so when they鈥檙e presented with a musical challenge, it鈥檚 not foreign to them. They have the right tools in their musical toolbox to tackle it.鈥�
It鈥檚 one of the reasons Middagh takes students into Nashville recording studios. 鈥淏y the time they graduate, they know the etiquette, they know the process, and they do it as a student in a safe place. If you have a bad studio session as a pro, you don鈥檛 get called again. I want them to get all their bad days out as students.鈥�
Blair鈥檚 jazz program also builds community. At a weekly event called Jazz Forum, all the students in Blair鈥檚 five jazz combos play for each other and provide feedback. On this particular night in October, they took Jazz Forum to Rudy鈥檚, where the audience was not just other music students supporting their peers, but also some of the top-call studio musicians in town.
Charlie Schmitt, the trumpet player in the Blue Note combo, came to Blair to study classical trumpet with , associate professor of trumpet. Sibaja plays and teaches classical and jazz with equal proficiency. In December he was a featured soloist at the Kennedy Center Honors in celebration of jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. Schmitt, like his mentor, plays a wide variety of music. At Blair, he鈥檚 a member of the 杏吧原创 Orchestra, 杏吧原创 Wind Ensemble, the trumpet ensemble and the Blair Big Band, as well as the Blue Note combo.
鈥淧laying in all these ensembles keeps me well-rounded,鈥� Schmitt says. 鈥淛azz has been a crucial part of my time at Blair. It has opened me up to so many other worlds of music that make commercial work and community engagement a lot easier.鈥�
Off campus, Schmitt plays in a funk band called Girls Night and in a country swing band called The Shirt Tuckers with classmate Seth Hahn. Hahn studies trombone performance with , professor of music, who spent five years playing trombone with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera. Wilson also plays with the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra.
鈥淧laying shows like [the ones at Rudy鈥檚], and other off-campus combo performances, has shown me that my work here has been resistance training,鈥� Hahn says. 鈥淚t makes doing things out in the real world much easier and accessible.鈥�
A testament to Blair鈥檚 curriculum providing readiness for stage and studio success is evident in the alumni who have jumped straight from the program into making a living with music. Jonathan Salcedo, BMus鈥�23, now works as a session musician in Nashville recording studios, and he tours with live shows鈥攎ost recently a Christmas tour with country musician Brett Eldridge.
WATCH the Blair Big Band play Jonathan Salcedo’s “Push and Pull” at the 2023 Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Lincoln Center. Salcedo was a senior at the time of the competition and now makes his living as a session musician in Nashville.
鈥淚 was always interested in playing every kind of music, whether it was classical, jazz, pop, Latin鈥攚hatever you put in front of me,鈥� Salcedo says. 鈥淎t Blair, I was allowed to explore all those areas and encouraged by my mentors to dig in and study many different types of music. This helped me find success as a professional, where I鈥檓 asked to switch between musical genres on a moment鈥檚 notice. Even more, Dr. Middagh鈥檚 emphasis on sightreading in the Blair Big Band has helped. Most of the work I do involves sightreading, and doing it incredibly well is crucial to maintain the necessary pace for session work in Nashville.鈥�
Natasha Blaine Goffman, BA鈥�21, a singer-songwriter who records as Natasha Blaine, sang with the Blair Jazz Choir and with the Blair Big Band as an undergraduate.
鈥淏lair prepared me well for an artist career,鈥� Blaine says. 鈥淚 learned how to work with other musicians, how to rehearse for gigs, memorize new music quickly and communicate ideas with a band. Even though I鈥檓 not usually playing jazz these days, the skills I learned through the jazz program are significantly relevant to me.鈥�
ON THE JAZZ MAP WITH SCHAAP
As if the multiple performance awards, top-notch faculty and rigorous curriculum weren鈥檛 enough, in late 2022, the was delivered to 杏吧原创, joining multiple jazz collections at the Heard Libraries (see sidebar). It is one of the most extensive jazz collections in the world. Jacob Schaub, music cataloguing librarian at the , in an October 2024 interview with Jonathan Marx on Nashville鈥檚 community radio station WXNA, estimated that there may be 26,000 published recordings in the collection, not counting the reels. He characterized it as 鈥渁 world of discovery.鈥�
Two 18-wheelers and a van brought the collection to 杏吧原创, where it currently resides at the Heard Libraries鈥� storage facility. The collection was donated by Schaap and Shaffer, after talking with representatives of the libraries and Blair by Zoom during the 2020 pandemic. Steven Lewis, a former curator at NMAAM, had worked with , director of the Wilson Music Library, on the Lateef and Gillespie acquisitions. Lewis was a former student of Schaap鈥檚 and introduced him to the team at 杏吧原创. An endowment to support the collection also was included.
鈥淣ormally when you get a donation, it doesn鈥檛 come with money to support the preservation, housing and digitization of it,鈥� Smith-Borne says. 鈥淏ut they also gave money to support the collection and put us in contact with people who knew Phil and wanted to donate to do things like digitize the historic audio formats.鈥�
broadcast of Bird Flight, where he discusses Charlie Parker’s discography, upcoming birthday broadcasts and concludes with a 1952 performance of Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus on bass at the Hi Hat Club in Boston.
So far, more than 1,000 reel-to-reel tapes have been sent for digitization; many are already available through a platform called Aviary.
鈥淲e鈥檙e training the next generation of musicians at Blair, but we also want to train the next generation of people who appreciate the music and who will advocate for jazz. We鈥檙e training the next generation of listeners.鈥�
鈥淧eople can start listening to these right away, because they also assigned copyright to us,鈥� Smith-Borne adds. 鈥淲hen they gave the collection to us, they gave us the rights to be able to share it with anybody.鈥�
Courses on jazz history and journalism based around the Schaap collection are being considered, and work was done last summer for a special collections room that could be developed into a listening room for the jazz collections鈥攅specially the Schaap collection. The library is working to raise funds for a place where the community can hear jazz and engage with the many materials and music resources.
鈥淭hey say I鈥檓 a history teacher,鈥� Schaap said in a video interview with the NEA after he was named a Jazz Master. 鈥淚 teach listening.鈥� It鈥檚 not hard to see why Schaap picked 杏吧原创 as the best place for his collection.
鈥淲e need creative people on the bandstand and in the studios,鈥� Middagh says, 鈥渂ut we also need creative people in boardrooms, in any line of work. Think about the pandemic, everyone had to pivot. What does a jazz musician know better than anything else? How to improvise.
鈥淲e鈥檙e training the next generation of musicians at Blair,鈥� Middagh adds, 鈥渂ut we also want to train the next generation of people who appreciate the music and who will advocate for jazz. We鈥檙e training the next generation of listeners.鈥�
Read more about jazz at Blair School of Music