Studio Music & Jazz Faculty

Mark Boling is Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Jazz Program. He received his B.M. degree from the Berklee School of Music, Boston, MA and the M.M. from the University of Tennessee. He is the author of Creative Comping Concepts for Jazz Guitar, The Jazz Theory Workbook, Elements of the Jazz Language software, and Curriculum for Aural Training ear training software. He has performed on guitar with Donald Brown, Henry Johnson, Charlie Byrd, Bill Watrous, Louie Bellson, Matt Wilson, Carl Allen, Lenny White and others. He released two recordings as a leader — Evidence (2001) and most recently, Tune Me (2005) with fellow jazz faculty members Donald Brown, Keith Brown and Rusty Holloway and artist-in-residence Zim Ngqawana. Boling has worked as a multimedia consultant, composer and producer for software products, and as a consultant and clinician for Apple Computer Corporation. He has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts International Jazz Workshop, the Berklee College of Music Summer Guitar Sessions and at the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony.

Web site: www.markboling.com

Research/Creative Activity 2006: Mark Boling

Donald Brown is Associate Professor of Music. He is an internationally renowned jazz pianist who has played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson, and Donald Byrd. In addition to four recent albums of his own he has recorded with many jazz artists. His original compositions are widely recorded.

Research/Creative Activity 2006: Donald Brown

He directs the UT Jazz Big Band and small jazz combos. He also studied with Alan Dawson, George Marsh, and Ed Soph on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Professor Brown is an active jazz performer and has played with Charlie Spivak, Mose Alison, Diane Schure, Jerry Coker, Tommy Flanagan and others. He is very involved with the Percussive Arts Society and has contributed articles to its official publication.

He is an artist performer and teacher both in the classic and jazz areas, an active clinician in improvisation and rhythm section technique, and gives master classes in orchestral and solo bass performance. Mr. Holloway has performed as a bassist with leading U.S. jazz artists including Woody Herman, Dizzy Gilespie, Clark Terry, Zoot Soms, Al Cohn, Gap Mangione, Joe Williams, and Stan Getz; and in concert with Paul McCandless, Dave Samuels, Dan Gottlieb, and many more, as well as shows and television appearances with Bob Hope, Pete Barbutti, Della Reese, Liza Minelli, and Jerry Lewis.

In 1997, he received the Downbeat Award for Best Arrangement of "Shade Street." In the same year, he was a semi-finalist in the Theolonius Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. In 1993, he won first place in the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Trumpet Competition. He is the founding director of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra.