Neil Slater

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Neil Slater
(L-R) Michel Machietto (alto sax), Isaac Lamar (tenor sax), Neil Slater conducting the One O'Clock Lab Band at the Umbria Jazz Festival, July 18, 2008
(L-R) Michel Machietto (alto sax), Isaac Lamar (tenor sax), Neil Slater conducting the One O'Clock Lab Band at the Umbria Jazz Festival, July 18, 2008
Background information
Birth nameKenneth Neil Slater
Born (1931-07-31) July 31, 1931 (age 92)
Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S.
GenresJazz, contemporary classical
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, teacher
Instrument(s)Piano
Websiteneilslater.com

Kenneth Neil Slater (born July 31, 1931) is an American educator, composer, and pianist.[1][2][3] In 2008, he retired as professor emeritus.[i][4] He has composed over 80 works for jazz ensemble and has written for symphony, chamber groups, a cappella choir, opera, and musical theatre.[5]

Career

Early years

Slater was born in July 1931 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Beginning at age six, he learned piano from a friend of his parents. In 1952 he graduated from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. Two years later he received a master's degree in composition from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1960, he took night classes for about two years at Teachers College, Columbia University, studying pedagogy, piano, and composition.

From 1954 to 1956, Slater served in the

U.S. Army, spending most of his time with the 97th Army Band at Fort Sill[6] as a pianist but also playing French horn and valve trombone.[5] He backed guest stars in shows produced by Daniel Melnick of the Music and Entertainment Section of Special Services. One such show featured vocalist Peggy King, who entertained the troops at Fort Sill in 1956.[ii][iii] Slater also directed a weekly television show from Fort Sill. Gary McFarland was among the musicians.[7]

Teaching and composing

Neil Slater (1980)

Slater's first teaching job, from 1956 to about 1960, was with the Mount Vernon City Schools, where he traveled to a different school each day of the week, covering five schools, to introduce elementary school students to their first instruments. Jazz drummer Alvin Queen, when he was in elementary school, started studying drums with Slater, who, at the time, taught all the band instruments.[iv][v] In 1965 he co-founded the Westchester Stage Band Clinics.[vi]

In 1968, he became Director of Bands at Mamaroneck High School.[vii] Two years later he joined the music faculty at the University of Bridgeport. In 1970, he was appointed Slater as Assistant Professor of Music with the Jazz and Composition Faculty, Department of Music, College of Education.[viii] Bridgeport's expansion in jazz was influenced in part by a new emphasis placed on jazz curriculum at the National Association for Music Education conference[viii] that was held March 1970 in Chicago. Slater founded the jazz program in 1971 at the University of Bridgeport. For 11 years, Slater directed the University of Bridgeport Jazz Ensemble. He also served as coordinator of UB's Jazz Studio Program. He hired Bill Finegan to teach composing and arranging and Finnegan's wife Rosemary to teach singing. Slater also hired Sal Salvador, Art Davis, Randy Jones. The UB Jazz Ensemble performed with Bill Watrous, Gerry Mulligan, and Chet Baker.

Slater became Director of Jazz Studies, and in 1976 the school established a bachelor's degree in jazz studies.

Warner Bros.
as a composer, arranger and consultant.

He frequently performed as a featured guest piano soloist with other college jazz ensembles. In one instance, Slater was a guest pianist at the Memphis State University Jazz Week '77.[x]

Jazz Studies at North Texas

Slater in Denton, Texas (1982)

From 1981 to 2008, Slater was Chair of Jazz Studies and director of the

Molde Jazz Festival
.

Take the A Train".[xiii][13]

While in New York City, he maintained an active role as a composer, arranger, pianist, and educator. He was active in big bands, jazz combos, andstudio work ranging for jazz, R&B, pop, and jingles. In the 1970s, Slater arranged choral works by

Moody Blues hits. In 1972, Warner Bros. contracted Slater as a consultant to compose and arrange.[14]
His choral arrangements include "Theme from Summer of '42" and "Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon".

Awards and honors

Slater was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement on an Instrumental for his arrangement of "Values," which he also composed. "Values" was on the album Lab 91 performed by the One O'Clock band directed and co-produced by Slater.

Slater is also a two-time Grammy nominee participant. The first was in 1989 for a work by

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the North Texas jazz studies program as the best in the country every year from 1994, when it began ranking graduate jazz programs, to 1997, when it retired the category.[15][16]

Discography

  • Neil Slater Trio (York, 1963)
  • Lew Anderson Big Band Live (1974)
  • Parallelogram, Sal Salvador (GP, 1978)[19]
  • Lab '82: European Tour Live at Montreaux (1982)
  • Lab '83
  • Lab '84
  • Lab '85
  • Lab '86
  • With Respect to Stan (1986)
  • Lab '87
  • Live In Australia - The 1986 Tour (1987)
  • Lab '88
  • Lab '89
  • Lab '90
  • Lab '91
  • Lab '92
  • Lab '93
  • Lab '94
  • One O'Clock Standard Time: Remembering Gene Hall (1994)
  • Lab '95
  • Lab '96
  • Lab '97
  • Lab '98
  • Lab '99
  • Kenny Wheeler at North Texas (2000)
  • Lab 2000
  • Lab 2001
  • Lab 2002
  • Lab 2003
  • Lab 2004
  • Live from Thailand (2004)
  • Midwest Clinic (Mark, 2004)
  • Lab 2005
  • Lab 2006
  • Lab 2007
  • Lab 2008
  • Lab 2009
  • Lab 2010
  • Lab 2011
  • Lab 2012
  • Lab 2013

Notes and references

Books, magazines, journals, dissertations, websites

  1. OCLC 2035024
  2. ^ a b "Out of Sync" (alternate link), by John Craig Morthland (born 1947), Texas Monthly, Vol. 20, N° 11, November 1992, pps. 88–92
  3. ISSN 0468-6659 (retrieved August 26, 2016, via issuu
    )
  4. Down Beat
    , October 2007, pps. 102–104
  5. ^
    OCLC 990281196
  6. ^ "77th Army Band, Fort Sill, Oklahoma — Active Army; History," c/o Commander: 77th Army Band, Fort Sill, Oklahoma (retrieved August 23, 2016, via www.music.army.mil)
  7. OCLC 905239654
    ), a film by Kristian Paul St. Clair (born 1972) (retrieved August 19, 2016)
  • LCCN 73-159620
  • Berklee
    .
    UNT College of Music (music majors)
    2006–07: 1,649
    2007–08: 1,659
    2008–09: 1,608
    2009–10: 1,635
    2010–11: 1,596
  • ^ "Neil Slater, Professor Emeritus" (bio), University of North Texas College of Music, Division of Jazz Studies (website) (retrieved November 11, 2017)
  • ^ "School of Music," Catalog of North Texas State University, 1983–1984, Graduate (1983), pg. 11
  • OCLC 189503280
    .
  • ^ "People," Time, July 7, 1967
  • ^ "Notes of Interest" ("Warner Bros. Publication Inc."), Choral Journal (American Choral Directors Association), Vol. 12, N° 5, January 1972, pg. 19 (retrieved August 26, 2016, via JSTOR at www.jstor.org/stable/23543554, fee required)
  • OCLC 39474227
  • OCLC 35667716
  • ^ a b U.S. Congressional Citation: Congratulating Neil Slater, Chairman of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas, On An Outstanding Career," sponsored by Michael C. Burgess, U.S. Representative, Texas, 26th District, Congressional Record: Extensions of Remarks, July 15, 2008 (retrieved August 26, 2018, via 2008 Congressional Record, Vol. 154, Page E1470 )
  • ^ "UB celebrates Homecoming Weekend, October 14-16," by Leslie Geary (Director of Communications, UB), UB News (University of Bridgeport), October 12, 2016 (retrieved May 16, 2017)
  • OCLC 44517932

    • Newspapers

    1. ProQuest 214643424
      .
    2. ^ "TV's Peggy King to Perform Here," The Cannoneer (official weekly newspaper of Fort Sill), Vol. 13, No. 2, January 19, 1956 (front page)
    3. ^ "Perky Peggy King Ends Two Day Visit," The Cannoneer (official weekly newspaper of Fort Sill), Vol. 13, No. 3, January 26, 1956, pg. 2
    4. ^ "Alvin Queen, 'The Monster'" by Elaine Bissell, (née Faulkner; 1917–2013), Westchester Weekend, the magazine of the Herald Statesman, September 14, 1979
    5. ^ "Jazz Concert," Herald Statesman (Yonkers, New York), December 12, 1980, pg. 17 (retrieved August 25, 2016, via www.fultonhistory.com)
    6. ^ "Pelham Plans Band Clinic," Daily News (Tarrytown, New York), March 10, 1965, pg. 24
    7. ^ "Four Newcomers Join Music Staff at Muskingum," Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio), August 25, 1968, pg. 2 (retrieved via www.newspapers.com/clip/78727836)
    8. ^
      Bridgeport Post, July 19, 1970, pg. 5 (retrieved August 15, 2016, via www.newspapers.com
      )
    9. ^ "Jazz Group To Perform," Observer-Dispatch (Utica, New York), March 30, 1981, pg. 11 (retrieved August 25, 2016, via www.fultonhistory.com)
    10. ProQuest 370621156
      .
    11. Dallas Morning News
      , July 3, 1981, pg. 40A
    12. New York Times
      , May 30, 1967
    13. Dallas Morning News
      , September 11, 1968