Quartet first to win award for Emerging Jazz Artist Project

The Jeff McLaughlin Quartet was named as the first winning group of the Emerging Jazz Artist Project. The four students at the Jacobs School of Music were awarded for their musical prowess. Their reward was a nationally released album in their name.

The Quartet’s members include graduate students guitarist Jeff McLaughlin, bassist Ashley Summers, drummer Michael D’Angelo and junior pianist David Linard.

This summer, the project was announced by Owl Studios, an independent record label based out of Indianapolis, and it was officially launched at the beginning of the school year.

While there were many options of music schools to partner with, Jacobs was chosen because of its reputation, said Richard Dole, account executive for Owl Studios.

“The IU Jazz Department graduates are some of the best jazz musicians around. They are the future of jazz, and we wanted to tap into that raw talent,” Dole said.

The initiative behind the program lies in jazz education, one of the fundamental characteristics of Owl Studios, Dole said.

All artists on the Owl label are not only musicians, but also educators. Dole marked jazz education as an important part to the future of the musical genre.

One of these educators is Brent Wallarab, assistant professor of jazz studies at the Jacobs School and Owl Studios musician.  Wallarab assisted in developing and coordinating the project with Owl Studios and said the amount of enthusiasm for the project was incredible.

“Within the first month and a half of the semester, 14 new groups were formed and 42 new jazz compositions and arrangements. This is a remarkable amount of accomplishment for an entire school year, let alone the first month of a new school year,” Wallarab said.

Groups that auditioned were composed of three to seven musicians who were current or recent graduates of the Jacobs School. To audition, each group was required to submit two original compositions and one arrangement of a pre-selected tune, this year’s being Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”.

McLaughlin, current master’s student in jazz studies, was head of the winning quartet chosen by a five-judge panel. As winners of the EJAP, the group will release and market a professionally recorded album of its own songs.

“Hopefully the music we create is honest, interesting and relevant,” McLaughlin said.

When creating his group, McLaughlin said he chose musicians who he thought would enjoy working on the project with him. Because of his strategic choices, he said there is a mutual feeling of respect between the four group members, and they work well together.

The quartet will record its album in December, but McLaughlin said the planning process has already begun. Writing and recording is, after all, the easy part, Dole said.

“The hard part is the marketing, licensing, promoting and selling of the album. The business side is a whole different ball game,” Dole said.

McLaughlin and the other members of the quartet will get to work with Owl professionals to learn how to promote themselves and acquire the skills that Dole said are necessary to have in order to make it inthe industry.

Although there was one winning group, Wallarab said all groups that participated reaped some benefit. The process of creating a group, composing new material, rehearsing and recording was an important experience for all the musicians, he said.

“It is an opportunity for creative growth for everyone involved,” Wallarab said.