Lenora Helm Hammonds, director of graduate programs for jazz studies at NCCU, said that as a developing musician, it’s important to have somewhere to play so you understand how the music works.
“The musician’s journey is very much shaped by the opportunity to interact with your peers on stage and in social settings,” she said.
A number of venues in Durham today encourage the tradition of musical interaction. Kingfisher, a cocktail bar in downtown Durham, has live jam sessions on Tuesday nights, and Missy Lane’s Assembly Room frequently holds open mic nights and improvised performances.
Lydia Salett Dudley, musician and producer of Lydia Salett Dudley & Jazz Xpressions, wasn’t a jazz listener but was drawn in by the history of the music.
She said that to keep audiences engaged who aren’t familiar with the history, her band incorporates their own experiences into the performances to keep the music fresh. For Dudley, this comes in the form of gospel or R&B flairs.
First formed in Durham, ZOOCRÜ blends popular American genres — hip hop, rock, blues and gospel — into jazz to create Black American music, according to their website.
“Somebody told me that in art you learn the rules so you can break them, and I don’t think that we would have been able to gain this much notoriety locally if we didn’t have that mentality of just being fearless and wanting to learn,” Alan Thompson, saxophonist for ZOOCRÜ said.
When they were first starting out, Thompson said the group was denied opportunities to play at venues throughout Durham. That opportunity finally came on Franklin Street, when they started to play in front of Cosmic Cantina every Friday night.
Thompson said that as jazz has become a fine art, the only way to get your foot in the door to become a musician is through college, which can limit opportunities for those who don’t pursue higher education.
“I think that it’s great to pay homage to our past ancestors, but I think jazz culture has a way of putting more attention on the artists that are no longer here with us, rather than pouring into these new emerging artists and fighting for equity and things of that nature,” Thompson said.
@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com
To get the day’s news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
