Jazz Professor Jeffrey Holmes Delivers Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Live Music to Packed Audience
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Speaking to a packed audience in Old Chapel, Jeffrey Holmes, professor of music and director of Jazz and African American Music Studies, delivered "The Art of Jazz Improvisation: Conversations in Spontaneous Composition" on Nov. 15 as part of the 2023-24 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series. He was also presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus.
For his talk, Holmes provided a historical overview of jazz improvisations that have defined the stylistic vocabulary through the 20th century and beyond. His lecture included live demonstrations and recorded excerpts to provide context and analytical perspective.
Holmes was accompanied by UMass colleagues Fumi Tomita (bass) and Tom Giampietro (drums), as well as vocalist Dawning Holmes as he examined celebrated solos by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Clifford Brown (recorded with UMass Amherst’s own iconic drummer, Max Roach), Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and more.
Holmes’s ensemble also created an on-the-spot improvisational piece to further demonstrate concepts utilized in soloing and group interaction.
He was introduced by Interim Dean Joye Bowman, who had this to say about Holmes's successful career:
A performer, educator, and nationally published and commissioned composer/arranger, Professor Holmes has had a long and illustrious career. He has worked alongside some of jazz’s most celebrated musicians to create, build, and elevate the university’s prestigious jazz program to what it is today.
His history with UMass began in 1980, when the late Dr. Frederick C. Tillis—a seminal figure from the school’s arts programs, former director of the Fine Arts Center, and a founder of our jazz program—recruited Professor Holmes to lead the newly developed Afro-American Music and Jazz Studies program. He accepted. The two formed a close friendship and regularly played music together for years, even recording several albums.
The Afro-American Music and Jazz Studies program is steeped in remarkable history. Aside from Dr. Tillis and Professor Holmes, faculty members in the program included jazz legends such as pianist and composer Billy Taylor; drummer Max Roach; one of the foremost scholars in African American gospel music Horace Boyer; multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef Lateef; and saxophonist, composer, and pioneer of the free jazz movement Archie Sheppe—just to name a few.
Together with Frederick Tillis, Billy Taylor, and Max Roach, Professor Holmes established the university’s Jazz in July program as a way to help mentor jazz students. Now more than 40 years old, Jazz in July continues to connect students with the country’s top musical artists and educators for an intensive summer study in jazz improvisation. Today, Professor Holmes serves as the program’s artistic director.
He also directs the award-winning Jazz Ensemble I, which many of us were lucky enough to watch perform at the 49th Annual Multiband Pops Concert during this year’s homecoming. Under Holmes’s leadership, the ensemble has gained national and international recognition for their work, and rightly so—they’re incredible!
Outside of UMass, Professor Holmes has written music for artists such as John Abercrombie, The Big Apple Circus, Ernie Watts, Max Roach, Yusef Lateef, and numerous military, college, high school, and junior high musical ensembles. He is a multiple recipient of National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Composition Grants, a former panelist and co-chair for the National Endowment for the Arts, a former columnist for Jazz Player Magazine, and contributor of thirty entries to the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. He also received the Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education Lifetime Achievement Award.
As part of the Jazz at Kennedy Center Series with the Billy Taylor Trio, Holmes has performed around the world with a “Who’s Who” of jazz and popular artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis Jr., Sheila Jordan, Aretha Franklin, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, and Solid Brass, as well as on numerous NYC Broadway shows. His work has been featured on many CDs; the latest, “Of One’s Own” by The Jeff Holmes Quartet, is his first small-group recording.
In addition, Professor Holmes plays keyboards with the Paul Winter Consort, leads the Jeff Holmes Big Band featuring his wife, vocalist Dawning Holmes, and plays lead trumpet with the New England Jazz Ensemble.
Of his talents, NPR has said, “No tune is too fast or too slow for trumpeter Jeff Holmes. He has an impressive technical mastery and can decorate any melody with a lyrical style. . . [and] profound musical insights.”
Established in 1974, the annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture is dedicated to acknowledging the work of our most esteemed and accomplished faculty members. The lecture series not only honors individual faculty members and their achievements, but also celebrates the values of academic excellence that we share as a community. Each honoree is presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus.