UNT Division of Jazz Studies

Oklahoma native Lynn Seaton, who is on sabbatical this semester, will be the featured guest artist in a concert by the University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab at the UCO campus in Edmond on Monday Sept. 14, 2009. For further information, see this NewsOK.com article.

A Special Message about the North Texas Jazz Festival from the UNT Jazz Studies Division

The North Texas Jazz Festival will not take place in April 2010 due to budget constraints that made it necessary for the Town of Addison to end its support of the festival (see the statement below from the Town of Addison). At this time, the festival is suspended while we investigate options for the future.

We wish to thank each of you who have participated in the festival over the years as invited school groups, guest artists, audience members, adjudicators, clinicians, presenters, sponsors, support staff, media partners, host hotels, and vendors. Your involvement made the event a dynamic educational festival over its nine-year existence.

We also wish to thank the Town of Addison for its generous support of this event, including the Town Council, Mayor Joe Chow, and City Manager Ron Whitehead. The Town of Addison Special Events Division worked tirelessly to make this event unique. The UNT Jazz Studies Division is grateful for this support of our educational endeavor.

We hope to find a way to continue the North Texas Jazz Festival in the near future. More information will be posted to the festival home page and UNT Jazz Studies website as it becomes available.

Craig Marshall
Festival Director

John Murphy
Chair, UNT Jazz Studies Division

From the Town of Addison

After nine years of wonderful collaboration with the University of North Texas Jazz Studies Division, the Town of Addison has decided to discontinue hosting the North Texas Jazz Festival in 2010.

We are proud of the outstanding educational and performance opportunities the festival has provided thousands of students from across the nation and the world. We have certainly been inspired by the incredibly talented participants and we will miss hearing and seeing them performing at the festival.

The pressures of the current economic condition necessitate that the Town of Addison take a different course in regards to the festival. We wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to the University of North Texas and the hundreds of schools for supporting and believing in the festival. We look forward to exploring additional opportunities the future may hold.

Li Xiaochuan
The Li Xiaochuan Quartet, composed of current UNT Jazz Studies students, recently toured China. The group played 17 gigs in 6 cities and was featured on RTHK radio in Hong Kong. Listen to their interview about their tour and music here: http://bit.ly/pNcQx.
The quartet's members come from the US, Mexico and China. Roberto Verastegui, the pianist of the group, has previously toured in Hong Kong with the band "Nobody's Business" and will tour Japan in October. The group's pioneering efforts have led to a successful collection of shows, with a small portion of the Hong Kong promotion done by UNT Alumni - Asia: http://bit.ly/NTasia. UNT Alumni - Asia facilitates social networking and professional collaboration worldwide and strongly encourages participation in helping to globalize the North Texas educational experience.
Photography by michalgarcia.com

Brian Girley

Roberto Verastegui

Zach Forsyth

Guitarist and alumnus Thad Bonduris and his School of Rock are featured in this article by Lucinda Breeding in the Denton Record-Chronicle. He developed a rock band curriculum for young people as part of a recently-completed master's in music education at UNT. He studied in the UNT jazz program in the 1970s and took master's level classes in jazz studies during his music ed graduate work.

The UNT One O'Clock Lab Band now has a website where you can learn all about concerts, gigs, the history of the group, and who is currently a member. The website also has a Forum where you can connect with UNT alumni and network with everyone who loves jazz. When you visit please also go to the Mailing List page and send us your contact information so that we can stay in touch!

New York-based guitarist and UNT alumnus Alejandro Florez is profiled at allaboutjazz.com.

The new Jazz Singers CD "The Cost Of Living" is now available in the Jazz Studies office, and for mail order. CD contents are listed here.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – RECITAL HALL – 4 and 6pm
MUSIC STUDENTS and FACULTY are invited to Join us in the Recital Hall at 6pm for the workshop:
MUSIC 101 – How to be a Successful Music Student
Refreshments and door prize drawings following at 7pm

Tuesday, Sept 1st – 4pm – Recital Hall
Required Meeting for ALL INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Annual informational meeting for all our international students –
New and Continuing students, Graduate, Second Bachelor and Undergraduate Students should attend
Light refreshments with door prize drawings at 5pm
Meet with Becky King, Music Liaison for International Students
And other MUSIC Personalities for latest news and updates to make your life easier!
If you are not able to attend, please stop by MU 260 to sign the ABSENTEE List on Becky Hughes's desk.

From our friends at KERA:

UNT professor Walton Muyumba will be a guest on Think next week to discuss his new book "The Shadow and the Act: Black Intellectual Practice, Jazz Improvisation, and Philosophical Pragmatism" (Chicago, 2009). Jerome Weeks will interview him during the Art&Seek segment on Friday, September 4 at 7:30 p.m. on KERA-TV. The program will be streamed afterwards at www.kera.org/think. Additional information regarding the guest lineup for next week follows.

Think airs from noon to 2:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday on KERA-FM and every Friday except the last Friday of the month at 7:30 p.m. on KERA-TV. Podcasts and streamed video are available online after broadcast at www.kera.org/think.

Alexander Gelfand reviews saxophonist and UNT alumna Idit Shner's CD "Tuesday's Blues" in Tablet.