Blair Big Band
The fact that Nashville has long been home to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the nation’s premier facility devoted to country music history, is shocking to no one. Though the decision to build the National Museum of African American Music here raised some eyebrows, it makes perfect sense. But what might surprise folks even more is that one of America’s largest collections of jazz memorabilia and recordings is located here, as is a collegiate big band universally recognized among the nation’s best.
Specifically, that’s the Phil Schaap Jazz Collection and the Blair School of Music’s Blair Big Band, both situated at Vanderbilt University. Holling Smith-Borne is director of the school’s Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, and Ryan Middagh is chair of the Department of Jazz and Global Music in addition to directing the big band. Together, they have helped make Music City a destination for jazz research, education and performance that rivals New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Kansas City, New Orleans or Los Angeles.
The late Phil Schaap spent more than five decades as a disc jockey at WKCR-FM, Columbia University’s radio station, a curator of programs at Jazz at Lincoln Center and an instructor at Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Juilliard. During that time, he not only did hundreds of amazing radio programs that chronicled his encyclopedic knowledge of the art form, but also amassed an incredible collection of jazz-related items. Smith-Borne credits Vanderbilt’s academic stature and Blair’s reputation within the jazz community as the reasons Schaap selected it to house this massive collection.
“Our jazz pedagogy at Blair matched Schaap’s philosophy,” Smith-Borne tells the Scene. “I also think Schaap was looking for a jazz program that wasn’t already saturated with jazz resources that would duplicate parts of his collection. There are also issues of space and staff time needed to process the collection. Several of the institutions that Phil was evaluating didn’t have the space to house the collection or staff that could process it in a reasonable amount of time. Steven Lewis, former curator at [National Museum of African American Music], was a student of Schaap’s, and he recommended us to Phil. Vanderbilt Libraries and NMAAM currently have a collaboration going to build archival collections that are of use to both institutions.”
The collection includes 12,000 vinyl LPs, 10,000 78s, 2,000 CDs, 3,000 45s and 2,100 oral histories of jazz musicians that are primarily on reel-to-reel tape but are currently being digitized. There are also scholarly papers and three cases of discographical information, plus photos, music scores and other miscellaneous items.
“This could easily be one of the largest oral histories of jazz,” says Smith-Borne. “[Schaap] recorded full interviews with more jazz musicians than any other single person, going back to some of the earliest figures in jazz to the present.”
Blair Big Band
The library has already been working on the collection for 18 months, and estimates it will take five full years to totally incorporate it. You can follow the progress and view or listen to materials via the university library’s website. But the collection represents only one part of the jazz excitement happening at the school.
The other is the Blair Big Band, an ensemble composed entirely of undergraduate students that Middagh has been leading for 11 years as part of Blair’s extensive, celebrated jazz education program. The band has won multiple awards in venerable jazz magazine DownBeat’s yearly student band competitions.
“The ensemble plays approximately 100 pieces of repertoire each year, and I feel we are very well-balanced across traditional and contemporary styles,” says Middagh. “I conceptualize ‘jazz’ as an inclusive umbrella of a wide variety of styles that flow logically into preparing our students for diverse careers as 21st-century musicians. When addressing the band’s sound and approach, we must first serve the music we are playing. Different works, styles and periods demand different sound concepts and approaches — working to be flexible, thoughtful musicians who understand and hear the big picture of the music.”
The big band averages 10 or more performances per year, which range from on-campus shows, community concerts and collaborations with local schools to conferences and tours on behalf of the U.S. Department of State (the next one of which is planned for Colombia in 2026). The band’s next performance on home turf is Thursday, Nov. 14, at Vanderbilt’s Ingram Hall.
“We continue to build a diverse and inclusive jazz scene, and our students get involved early in their education,” says Middagh. “They draw inspiration from all the great music they hear at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, Rudy’s Jazz Room or other venues that host jazz music. Students also build relationships with local pros on and off our campus, working to develop their professional network. Nashville has some of the best musicians in the world, and the students get so much from when I invite Nashville pros to sit in on a rehearsal or give a master class.”
