Assistant professor of Music Dan Cavanagh, foreground, listens to playback of a vocal overdub recorded by poet Timothy Young, background, on Monday at Crystal Clear Studios in Dallas. Cavanagh's band, the Jazz Emporium Big Band, is recording tracks for their first album. The Shorthorn: Michael Rettig
With his son cradled in his arms, Dan Cavanagh walks into his office and hands him to his mother-in-law.
A keyboard, PBS home video on jazz, music sheets and other material that accent his career as a musician and professor cluttered his office.
It’s a busy schedule for the jazz studies assistant director and music assistant professor. His day continued when he picked up musicians from the airport that afternoon to play in his latest project.
The musicians and a poet came to record a big band jazz album Sunday as part of the Dan Cavanagh Jazz Emporium Big Band, a group Cavanagh recently formed.
The album, releasing next fall, is mostly instrumental with the exception of a poet’s spoken word and features original compositions that Cavanagh wrote. The title, Pulse, came from one of the songs he wrote for Virginia Tech University.
Assistant professor of Music Dan Cavanagh, left, goes over tracks recorded for his band's album with visiting assistant professor Micah Hayes, right, at Crystal Clear Studios. The band's album, tentatively titled Pulse, will be the first album Cavanagh has released on a record label. The Shorthorn: Michael Rettig
“As a musician, my research involves creative activity like playing concerts and writing music, and this is a combination of a two-year project that I have been working on,” Cavanagh said.
For him, the album brings entertainment and academic work.
“It’s part of my scholarly activities,” he said. “That’s not the only thing, of course.”
The band comprises 22 musicians including saxophone player Tim Ishii, music associate professor and jazz studies director, and others on trombone, trumpet, piano and bass drums. The group performed eight songs on the album.
Some band members worked with Cavanagh during his years as a traveling jazz musician. Others attended college with him and two are his former teachers.
Cavanagh’s uncle Tim Young, retired teacher and poet from Minnesota, recited his poem with the working title, “Mississippi Ecstasy,” over music on the album. The poem is based on a trip to the Mississippi River he took in 2006.
Though Young performed with music for at least 25 years, he said this was the first time he had read his poetry with a jazz Big Band.
“I wanted to be apart of that cutting edge of jazz,” he said.
Ishii collaborated with Cavanagh in choosing which musicians would best suit the album. The two have played together many times before this project.
“It’s just a great honor to be included,” Ishii said.
The professionals are not alone. Aspiring musicians also have a hand in the project — two trombone players are students.
Music senior Haley Kitts studied with Cavanagh for three semesters and said he influenced her jazz writing. One of her pieces premiered at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention and she said it wouldn’t have been written without his help.
“I think that he is extremely innovative,” she said. “His music is along the line of modern jazz.”
Pulse is the first record Cavanagh made that was signed to a record label, Sea Breeze Jazz Records. He has been part of other musical projects including The Dan Cavanagh Trio, a piano trio he led in the Metroplex accompanied by a drummer and bassist and The Dan Cavanagh Ensemble, a jazz and creative music group.
“This isn’t your swing jazz music of the 1940s anymore,” Cavanagh said. “There’s some rock influences, some classical influences as well as the traditional jazz influences.”
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