Local jazz musician Brian Horton participates in the public jam session at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. | Mary Lou Williams Center
Jazz at the Mary Lou
Duke center proves to be fertile grounds for jazz musicians
Monday, February 4, 2008
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Durham, NC -- Great jazz music often just happens. The right musicians, the right sound, the right feel, the right place, all at the right time.
Such is Jazz at the Mary Lou, a public jam session held Wednesday nights at Duke’s Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. The right mix of good acoustics, a central location on West Campus, and timing as a mid-week study break have made this a popular experience among students and musicians for nearly five years, according to Supriya Sundaram, who along with fellow sophomore Danielle Garver directs the sessions.
This isn’t your typical jam night, however. While just about anyone is welcome to sit in, shower singers are not.
“It’s just not for any old body who has an instrument in the garage to dust it off and come and think they can sit in,” says John Brown, director of Duke’s jazz program who started the sessions. “But it certainly is open to anyone who is serious about the performance of jazz.”
Brown initiated Jazz at the Mary Lou in 2003 when some of his students suggested the idea of hosting a jam session on campus. While some students attend for course credit — Brown requires students in his Introduction to Jazz class to go to at least 10 concerts — the event’s appeal among the student body has been far-reaching.
“It really is special because we get so many different types of students coming,” says Garver. “Most of our publicity is by word of mouth. Once you get a couple of regulars in there, they tend to bring friends.”
The attitude of the musicians also makes this a unique experience, notes Antonio Arce, academic program coordinator at Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Arce is a drummer who has sat in with Brown’s group.
“It’s not like other jam sessions out in public where they’d be mean or rude to you. It’s really supportive,” Arce says. “I’ve really enjoyed it; I’ve been amazed by the student turnout.”
The sessions are co-sponsored by the Mary Lou Williams Center and the Jazz Committee of the Duke University Union. The six-member student committee, led by Garver and Sundaram, oversees booking and payment of artists as well as event setup and staffing. The Mary Lou Williams Center, which turns 25 this year, provides free space and complimentary light snacks. Beer and wine are sold at the sessions, which start at 9:30 p.m. and typically run until about 12:30 a.m. The music will continue longer if musicians are “feeling it,” Sundaram says.
A professional house band — usually a rhythm section consisting of bass, drums and either piano or guitar — forms the core of invited performers every week, and students and freelance musicians are welcome to sit in.
When famous musicians visit campus, Brown often invites them to drop by the Wednesday night sessions, which can be a special treat. However, Garver and Sundaram say their favorite moments are when local talent takes the stage.
“They just blow you away sometimes,” says Sundaram, citing area saxophonist Brian Miller, a frequent guest at the Mary Lou. “It’s astounding to hear that kind of local talent week after week. If you’re here once, you’re hooked.”
Garver says she particularly enjoys seeing friends get up the nerve to perform.
For many students who go on to play professionally, Jazz at the Mary Lou functions as a bridge to the performing world, according to Brown. It’s also an opportunity for his colleagues and students from other universities as far away as Greensboro and Winston-Salem to gather, play and share ideas.
Brown says that’s true to the legacy of the center’s namesake, pianist and educator Mary Lou Williams, who once hosted salons attended by Dizzy Gillespie. She spent her last years teaching at Duke.
“She was very inviting and always wanted people to feel welcome to come; she would even go so far as to create an environment where that could happen,” says Brown. “Jazz at the Mary Lou is certainly in keeping with that spirit.”
Brown says Jazz at the Mary Lou is part of his mission to make jazz more visible and accessible on campus.
“It is my hope to create an environment where jazz is present to the degree that no one can pass through Duke without being touched by it,” Brown says. “I think it’s working.”
