Trio wins project award

For three musicians, it was time to face the music.

Fourteen different groups representing more than 40 individual students began composing, rehearsing and recording their own demos for the second annual Emerging Jazz Artist Project Award.

This year’s winners are members of the David Linard Trio. The group is senior Linard on piano, junior Ben Lumsdaine on drums and graduate student Nick Tucker on bass.

The members said they hope this opportunity will have a positive impact on their careers, but they’re also comfortable with how things are now.

“In a way, we’re all already doing what we will be doing (for a career),” Tucker said. “We all play all the time, and we all make money doing it. Ideally, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”

The Trio has extensive musical experience — all three members can play more than one instrument to some degree and have been playing their chosen instruments
for years.

They are also heavily involved with the music scene in Bloomington and play not only as a trio but also in several other bands.

The panel of judges, comprised of industry professionals, spent a weekend listening to every track and giving constructive criticism before beginning the process of narrowing submissions down to one winner.

The group would then be signed for a professional recording contract, including publicity, promotion and several live performances.

Brent Wallarab, an assistant professor in the Jacobs School of Music and the main organizer of the project, said he credits the trio’s win to the chemistry of the group.

“As an ensemble, the three of them worked together almost flawlessly, just like clockwork,” Wallarab said. “Yet at the same time, all three of them were able to function individually as soloists. With the trio, there’s a certain chemistry between the three of them.”

The trio members said they appreciate Wallarab.

“He’s a phenomenal educator,” Linard said.

Tucker said Wallarab is always thinking about his students and finding them the best opportunities possible.

Wallarab said he credits a large portion of the project’s success to those who supported and helped finance and organize the event.

Konrad Strauss of the Jacobs School’s Department of Recording Arts, Jacobs Dean Gwyn Richards, Chairman of the Jazz Department David Baker and CEO of Owl Studios Al Hall were among the contributors.

Engaging students in jazz music itself — not only the group — is especially important to the trio members.

“When you think of jazz, you probably don’t think of the stuff we’re playing,” Linard said. “I think there’s a lot of jazz that people have just never heard, and they should check it all out.”