IU grad Micheal Woods follows footsteps of jazz

When he was a baby, IU alumnus Michael Woods’ mom played symphonic music to help him sleep. Since then, he has dedicated his life to composing classical and jazz music.

“I went to sleep listening to Mozart and Haydn,” Woods said. “You’re being exposed to music of excellent craft long before you find out how difficult it is.”

Woods, a professor of jazz studies and electric bass at Hamilton University in New York, has released a CD called “The Tell All Book” that he is pitching to big record labels. He said his goal with the album was to get past many of the complexities that make music elitist by expanding the boundaries of his compositions.

“I wanted to come up with melodies that sounded fresh but still have a meaningful shake to them,” he said. “They’re almost singable, but still presented with some degree of challenge.”

Aside from just making an enjoyable release, Woods also had a bigger goal in mind.
“I’m trying to completely expand the definition of what people call ‘black,’” he said. “It seems that the definition has been shrinking to rap and R&B, but I don’t have to come up with a specific sound to sound black.”

Woods received his master’s degree in classical compositions from IU in 1979. He returned for a master’s degree in jazz studies in 1992.

At IU, the aspiring Woods met the man who would become his friend and mentor, current Chair of the IU Jazz Department David Baker.

“The man is my hero,” Woods said of his former teacher. “I don’t just like David Baker – I revere David Baker. Up until that point I did not know one black man in academia that could teach me the elements I needed in jazz.”

Baker described Woods as a very ambitious musician and a good student.

“He’s very, very smart, and he writes an awful lot of music,” Baker said. “The music is very idiosyncratic, but he’s a great composer.”

With Woods working in New York, Baker said he hasn’t talked to his former student in over five years. Still, Baker hopes he has helped Woods along in his career.

“I hope I’ve been a positive influence for him,” he said. “I was working at a time when there weren’t a lot of black composers, and I’m sure that influenced him.”

Thomas Walsh, associate professor of saxophone and jazz studies in the Jacobs School of Music, jammed with Woods at venues such as Bear’s Place for the Jazz Fables Series when the two were IU students in the early 1990s. Like Baker, Walsh describes the jazzsmith as being very ambitious.

“He’s a very prolific composer, and he always had new songs,” Walsh said. “He’s a very enthusiastic guy. I had a lot of fun working with him.”

Woods said he wrote his first composition when he was 17. While he can play various instruments, including the violin, he said he prefers the electric bass.

“I love playing the part that defines the harmonic undergirding,” he said. “I love having that autonomy.”

One of his ultimate goals is to have his music serve as his legacy.

“My greatest goal is at some point to have my music performed all over the known world,” Woods said. “Mozart died when he was about 35. He wrote 660 musical compositions, and he died penniless. In the United States you can walk into any music library, and they have every one of his collected works. Nobody can deny his contribution sonically to society. That’s what I aspire to be.”

He said his other goal was for his music to bring happiness to the world.

“As a black man, I don’t want to create angry music. I want to create inspirational music.”