It’s not unusual for world-class performers, writers and thinkers to set up shop at the Jacobs School of Music. But it’s because of that fact, not in spite of it, that shows like the IU Jazz Celebration exist.
Saturday, the newest members of the Jacobs Jazz faculty will take to the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington to show off why they’re such powerhouses in their respective concentrations.
Sure, the students they’ve taken under their wings see this firsthand, but the Jazz Celebration is the closest many in the community get to office hours with these instructors.
Here’s what you need to know about these jazz giants before they take IU to school this Saturday.
Tierney Sutton
“Her visit to IU was electric,” David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean Gwyn Richards told Indiana University in a press release. “[Faculty and students] were struck by her talent, her connection with the text and with her audience.”
Since she started at Jacobs last fall, Tierney Sutton has given her students plenty of reasons to want to learn from her. The vocalist has received eight Grammy nominations, one for every album she’s released since 2005.
In the past, she’s released music paying tribute to artists like Frank Sinatra (“Dancing in the Dark”), Joni Mitchell (“After Blue”) and Sting (“The Sting Variations”). But one of her recent collaborations might put her students’ group projects to shame.
After Sutton and her band had played a couple private shows for him, director Clint Eastwood reached out to Sutton about working on the music for his 2016 film, “Sully.”
She told Billboard, “Clint was there every step of the way. It was really collaborative.”
The audience will get to see for themselves what makes Sutton so sought-after when she joins the Jazz Celebration Saturday night.
John Raymond
In addition to joining the Jacobs School of Music faculty as an assistant professor of music in jazz studies, John Raymond is one of the more talked-about jazz musicians in the past few years.
With write-ups in the New York Times, Stereogum – Downbeat Magazine even named him a Rising Star in their critics’ poll – Raymond has received plenty of buzz for his work with his trio, Real Feels.
The band has had a steady stream of albums in the past few years. Their most recent album, “Joy Ride,” dropped back in February to critical acclaim.
Bloomington is a sharp contrast to his last home base of Brooklyn, but it’s one that excites Raymond.
He told Indiana University, “The school’s rich history in both jazz and trumpet education has always been second to none, and I couldn’t be more excited to now participate in shaping what’s to come.”
Todd Coolman
Apart from having the best name in Jazz, bassist Todd Coolman graduated from the Jacobs School of Music in 1975 before returning this past year as an adjunct professor.
In those years between, Coolman made a name for himself as one of the most in-demand jazz bassists in New York, both as an educator at State University of New York and a performer. He worked alongside artists like Horace Silver, Tommy Flanagan and Benny Goodman and spent 25 years with the James Moody Quartet.
That last credit earned Coolman a Grammy Award in 2011 for “Best Jazz Instrumental Album,” his second after winning one in 1999.
One of his more fascinating projects was his album "Perfect Strangers," comprised entirely of unfamiliar music submitted by unknown composers as part of an open call on the internet. All About Jazz said the album “stands out as a successful gamble that surely paid off.”
Walter Smith III
Saxophonist Walter Smith III has quite the résumé. His last two albums, 2014’s “Still Casual” and "TWIO," released in February of this year, both premiered in the top 20 on the Billboard jazz charts. He once played a show in Los Angeles that the L.A. Times reported had a line that stretched down the block.
In addition to frequent collaborators Eric Harland, Harish Raghavan and Ambrose Akinmusire, Smith has performed shoulder-to-shoulder with goliaths like Herbie Hancock and Destiny’s Child.
But among all that, Smith still lists educator at the top.
Smith is currently an associate professor of jazz studies at Jacobs; he also travels, putting on educational workshops and outreach events.
And on Saturday he’ll show off what made All About Jazz say, “he must surely rank highly amongst the finest saxophonists playing today.”
It’ll be one thing to hear each musician showcase what made them famous; but the Jazz Celebration will have something truly special when Sutton, Raymond, Coolman and Smith blend their styles together as the Plummer Combo for a united performance.
Tickets to the Jazz Celebration are $5 for students and $10 to $15 for the general public. The concert can also be streamed online through IU Music Live.
For more new and classic jazz, you can listen to Just You and Me every weekday on WFIU or online at WFIU.org.
