By Quiana Shepard
Famed jazz drummer Greg Hutchinson will perform alongside North Carolina Central University (NCCU) percussion professor Thomas E. Taylor at the university’s annual benefit concert on Sunday, Aug. 28.
Give the Drummer Some, which celebrates 10 years of jazz excellence and raises scholarship funds for jazz studies students, will kick off at 6 p.m. in the NCCU Student Center on campus. The event will honor NCCU alumnus and soul-jazz drummer and singer the late Grady Tate, a renowned self-taught session drummer and rim-shot syncopation expert.
Known as the “drummer of his generation,” Hutchinson is one of the few musicians today who had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the great originators of jazz music. He has also worked with a variety of who’s who in the jazz world, including Dianne Reeves, Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield, Roy Hargrove and more. His time signatures and beat compositions have also won him praise from the hip-hop community and led to work with rapper and actor Common, producer Kareem Riggins and Questlove of the Roots.
The Give the Drummer Some benefit will also offer percussion and music workshops to the public beginning at 2 p.m. in the B.N. Duke Complex.
The event is free and open to the public, with donations to the jazz studies program encouraged at the entrance. Advance donations may be made here. Please select “Jazz Studies Ensemble Studies Fund” from the drop-down box and include “Give the Drummer Some” in the notes section.
Over the past 10 years, the annual benefit concert has raised more than $28,000 in scholarship funds, benefiting students.
NCCU was the first university in the state to offer the Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies degree. The program now includes a comprehensive vocal jazz component and offers a Master of Music in both jazz composition and jazz performance.
NCCU artists-in-residence and GRAMMY Award winners Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo are involved in workshops and other instructional opportunities. Alumni from the jazz studies program include professors at the college and university levels, teachers of primary and secondary music education, as well as production and performance artists.
