Tag: Jazz

Overwhelmed and Grateful

In just one week, I have attended four events that have left me overwhelmed and grateful. Each of these events celebrated people who have spent over 30 years doing amazing acts of service and in each case they have inspired, challenged, supported, and loved students at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

  • 1 concert (retirement celebration) for Dr. Melody Meadows (Sunday, April 19)
  • 1 funeral for Marvin Wesley Culpepper (Wednesday, April 22)
  • 1 retirement for Alisa Mauk Lively Suttle (Friday, April 24)
  • 1 memorial dedication for Dr. David Allen Milburn (Saturday, April 25)

There were two events in celebration of Melody Meadows on the occasion of her retirement after 31 years. The first one included video greetings from former  students and some great music.  The second one was a beautiful concert  featuring 56 current and former choir members and colleagues. 

Melody (Mel) taught generations of students, many of whom are now professional singers and church musicians. She also played for countless campus convocations and events, served in administrative roles from 2013-2017, and shared her talents beyond the campus. She has served as the organist at Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church in Elkins. On many occasions she has accompanied musical groups on tours. I had the wonderful experience, for example, of traveling through Scotland in 2000 and enjoying her music and her support of a fantastic children’s choir (Chanticleer). There have been other tours as well! 

  • Assistant Professor of Music 1995-2000
  • Associate Professor of Music 2000-2005
  • Professor of Music 2005-2026
  • Director of the School of Fine Arts and Humanities 2013-2014
  • Associate Dean of the College 2014-2015
  • Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning 2015-2017

Marvin Culpepper’s funeral celebrated his life. He was connected with WVWC for all of his 96 years. When his father, Ross Culpepper, graduated in the class of 1930, they could not find a babysitter and so Ross carried him in the procession. Ross was named the President of the Alumni Council in 1954, and received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1950.

His mother, Olive Culpepper, Class of 1933, was a Trustee from 1956-1983 and Trustee Emerita from 1938-1994.  For decades she served as the Chairperson of the Dorothy Lee Scholarship Fund for International Students.  She was Alumnae of the year in 1967 and was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree in 1972.

Ross and Olive were tireless advocates for students, and gave generously to the school, including scholarships and books to the library. Their dedication to West Virginia Wesleyan College passed directly to Marvin.

Marvin (Class of 1951) and his wife, Elaine Karnes Culpepper (Class of 1954), carried on the tradition of support for their alma mater. Their gifts have been generous and have supported all areas of the school – athletics, performing arts, scholarships, and the library. You will see the Culpepper name on athletic fields and courtside seating in Rockefeller, and you will see the name on the Culpepper Auditorium in the Performing Arts Center. What you may not see is the tens of thousands of books (mainly Civil War, World War II, and Holocaust) that are in our library. As library director I would get a phone call several times each year saying when he was coming, and then helping him to unload the trunk of his car before sitting with him over a cup of coffee to share WVWC stories. He and Elaine each received the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2006.

His support of the students in ways seen and unseen has changed countless lives. 

For 39 years Alisa Mauk Lively has changed lives. Now her life will be changing! A year ago she got married, and is now Alisa Mauk Suttle. She will be retiring and enjoying a well-deserved change of pace.
Her title and responsibilities have changed through the years, but they were always the same in one important way: they (and she) are always Student Centered.

  • Director of Housing and Conferences 1987-1990
  • Director of Housing and Summer Conferences 1990-1992
  • Director of Student Activities and Summer Conferences 1992-1996
  • Director of Campus Activities and Summer Conferences 1996-2006
  • Director of Campus Activities, Summer Conferences and Recreation 2006-2008
  • Director of Campus Life 2008-2021
  • Dean of Students and Director of Campus Life 2021-2026
  • (2008-2018) Chairperson of College Staff Assembly
  • (2010) Extra Mile Award
  • (2016-2017) Chair of Staff Council

Her work has been behind the scenes for many, but right in the middle of everything for others. Since 1987, anyone who has ever lived in a dorm on campus, attended a concert, gone to Big Bingo or Late Night Breakfast, and other things way too many to list has been impacted by Alisa’s work. She inspired countless students, organized all manner of events and programs, and has been involved with student government and with any disciplinary actions that have had to be addressed. She has been a friend, a mentor, and a confidant for thousands of students. Many of those students came to celebrate on Friday evening and gave her a proper roasting. 

She has also been impactful well beyond campus.  Buckhannon and Upshur County have been high on her list of priorities. Things such as: Chamber of Commerce, Colonial Arts Center Board of Directors, Police Service Commission, Special Olympics of West Virginia, American Red Cross, Create Buckhannon, Habitat for Humanity, Strawberry Festival Board, Upshur County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mission Trip Volunteer. 

  • Last, but certainly not least, this week included a dedication. We gathered to remember and celebrate the contributions of a man who created opportunities, challenged and supported students, and who impacted WVWC in a major way.  Click here to read the remarks of Don Olah, Class of 1978, organizer of the dedication event.
  •  Assistant Professor of Music 1966-1972
  • Associate Professor of Music 1972-1982
  • Professor of Music 1982-2004
  • Professor of Music, Emeritus 2004-2013

From very early in his time at Wesleyan, he fought to get a Jazz program started. In those days, this was a controversial thing! At the time it was not something that was supported by the chair of the department, and he was ordered not to have such a thing. In fact, they had to practice in secret. If they had been discovered, he could have been fired. 

The group did eventually gain acceptance on campus, but his courage did not stop there. 

He led numerous Goodwill Ambassador trips to Europe playing jazz in Poland, Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Latvia, Finland, and the Soviet Union at a time when jazz music was banned in those places. He is reported to have played a role in helping people to defect, and to bring books into the country that helped inspire the fall of the Iron Curtain. Click here to read more about that history. 

My own family has a great connection with Dr. Milburn as my brother-in-law and my son both were encouraged, challenged, and supported by him. His students from those 38 years have gone on to do many amazing things.

The Jazz baton has been passed directly from Dr. Milburn to Dr. James Moore to Adam Loudin. Each day as he enters the office Adam can feel the legacy.

Any one of these events would have been powerful. All of them happening within one week was truly overwhelming. Four people with an impact on thousands. These four people are part of a long line of such people, and have inspired more to come in the future.

Very grateful.

Jazz Legacy and Echoes

November 16, 2019

What would cause more than 30 people to travel from seven states (and one even from as far away as Malaysia) to Buckhannon, WV to play jazz in the middle of November? There is only one answer to that question.

Doc Milburn’s Jazz Family Reunion

From 1966-2004. David Milburn taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Hundreds of students were challenged and inspired by him. Many of them became musicians and educators, some found their callings in medicine, banking, law, business, and a multitude of other professions. There are even several Wesleyan Jazz Sweetheart couples!

These students considered themselves part of the Milburn family and stayed in touch with his wife and daughters throughout the years. It was this sense of family that brought these people together. That, and the fact that they had shared so many incredible experiences together.

So how did it all begin?? It was all a product of the times, and of something much bigger.

The 1950s

The world was in a mess. The Cold War was raging around the world, The Civil Rights Movement was dominating the news in America. Into that mix came Jazz Music right in the middle of it all.

Louis Armstrong and his wife                                                                              Bettmann/Getty Images

Time Magazine ran a story in the December 22, 2017 issue which puts all of this into perspective. The article, by Billy Perrigo, is titled How the U.S. Used Jazz as a Cold War Secret Weapon. 

The music of jazz, which was structured around improvisation within a set of commonly agreed-upon boundaries, was a perfect metaphor for America in the eyes of the State Department. Here was a music of democracy and freedom. What the bands looked like was important too. “The racism and violence within the U.S. was getting international exposure,” says Von Eschen. “For President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, this was a great embarrassment.” By sending bands comprised of black and white musicians to play together around the world, the State Department could engineer an image of racial harmony to offset the bad press about racism at home.

  • 1956 – State Department sent Dizzy Gillespie as a Jazz Ambassador
  • 1957 – State Department sent Benny Goodman on a tour to the Far East
  • 1958 – Dave Brubeck toured Eastern Europe, Middle East, Southern Asia as an Ambassador. He championed racial integration and equality at home and abroad

Meanwhile, at Wesleyan

Music faculty at Wesleyan tended to focus more on more orthodox forms of serious music. Ensembles consisted basically of Orchestra, Choirs, and Chamber Ensembles. Vocal instruction was offered and piano, organ, and violin were stressed as well as other orchestral instruments. Faculty included such greats as Calvin Buell Agey, Robert Shafer, Irma Helen Hopkins, Bobby Loftis, and Owen West.

There was an emphasis on music theory, composition, orchestration, and form analysis. In other words, there were strict rules when it came to music.

The 1960s

The Cold War was in full force.

    • Construction began on the Berlin Wall (1961)
    • Cuban Missile Crisis – world on the brink of nuclear war (1962)
    • First U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam (1965)
    • Prague Spring Uprising crushed by the Warsaw Pact (an organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe) (1968)

The 1960s also was a busy time in the Civil Rights Movement with protests, marches, assasinations and the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1962,  Dave Brubeck, and wife Iola, wrote a musical called “The Real Ambassadors for Louis Armstrong (a musical commentary on race relations in America). The State Department cultural diplomacy tours of the 1950s were often at odds with the Civil Rights issues at home. This musical was intended to address the difficulties of these contradictions in message.

Meanwhile at Wesleyan

Milburn, David (Hiner Photo)
David A. Milburn

In 1966 a new faculty member was hired in the Music Department.

David Milburn, as it turns out, was about to cause a major shift in the departmental approach to music. Having had exposure to the great jazz legends, he was probaby a bit frustrated with this description of the Instrumental Ensemble Course in the 1968-69 catalog:

In 1969, he requested to form a Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Agey refused on the basis that jazz was not serious music and had no place in the department. He said that it could not meet in Loar Hall. So, David Milburn, the rebel, started the group and met off campus or in the SCOW (Student Center of Wesleyan). With no budgetary support, the band members literally sat around listening to records and writing out their own parts by hand.  Click here to read his recollection of that period of time. He recalls that:

We had to practice ‘secretly’ off campus and occasionally we were allowed to practice in the ‘Scow’ as long as the music department didnt hear about it. After the first year we were finally accepted by the music department but we had to use the name “Modern American Music Ensemble,” but at least we were acknowledged as a legitimate organization and they allowed us to practice on campus and even use Loar Hall to practice in.

The group quickly gained popularity with audiences and musicians alike. They learned improvisation and composing and to arrange compositions. They began to live by musical rules that went beyond the strict rules of days gone by.

By 1973, a mere four years later, the West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble participated in the first of what would be 10 Friendship Ambassador Tours to Eastern Europe, playing the music of freedom and democracy to audiences living under Communist Rule. They became part of that Cold War Secret Weapon of cutural diplomacy.

  • 1973 (July) Romania 
  • 1974 (August 6-30) Poland 
  • 1979 (May)Romania 
  • 1983 (Summer) Russia and Romania 
  • 1987 Hungary and Austria
  • 1992 (Spring) Russia, Romania, and the Ukraine
  • 1996 (May) The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania
  • 1997 Romania
  • 2001 Finland, Estonia, and Russia
  • 2004 (May) Bulgaria, Romania, and The Czech Republic

A documentary, The Jazz Ambassadors, was made in 2018. It was directed by Hugo Berkeley and stars Leslie Odom, Jr. It is currently available free on Amazon Prime. In it we see how The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, and Jazz collided.

David Milburn and the WVWC Jazz Ensemble took an active role in the cultural diplomacy of the times. Truly, this was a remarkable set of circumstances and a talented group of people. This rich legacy adds to the close-knit family feeling among the WVWC Jazz “Oldtimers.”

An Era Comes to a Close

As the final Milburn-led European trip came to a close in the summer of 2004, the band found itself performing in a theater in one of the largest cities in Bulgaria. On that particular evening, the concert stage was shared with a local jazz band. That group performed first, followed by WVWC.

At the end of the concert, Wesleyan welcomed the local Bulgarian jazz group to share the stage to perform the final song together as one “super-group.” While the vast majority of musicians from both groups were unable to communicate with each other through the language barrier, everyone was able to immediately bond through the one true universal language—music. The performance of that final song was a literal expression of everything the Wesleyan jazz group had come to represent in Eastern Europe over 30 years and 10 visits: bridging cultural divides, and bringing humanity closer together through music.

Following Dr. Milburn’s retirement in 2004, and with the different times in which we live today, the group is doing a few different things. For a couple of years, the program was led by David Wright, but in 2006, James Moore arrived at Wesleyan bringing with him his own hopes and dreams for the program. Jazz at WVWC is alive, well, and thriving.

That group has a story all of its own for another day, but suffice it to say that David Milburn would be excited to see the Legacy being carried forward.

Family Reunion!! (At least some of the family. There are hundreds more who were there in spirit as well)

A highlight of the evening was when the band played Hey Jude, and the audience which filled the Culpepper Auditorium joined in singing Hey Slide (Doc’s other nickname).

Special thanks to Jim Watson for getting the whole thing going and giving everyone the chance to create a wonderful tribute to our mentor and friend. And to Neil Randolph who stepped in to pull all of the musicians together and get them ready to swing.