Members of the Steve Haines Jazz Trio joined students from Assistant Professor of Psychology Karen Tinsley’s Psychology of African Americans class 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in Dana Auditorium in celebration of Black History Month. The Trio – Steve Haines, the director of the Miles Davis Jazz Program at UNC-G, Ira Wiggins, the director of the Jazz Studies program at North Carolina Central University, and Thomas Taylor, an adjunct faculty member at UNC-Chapel Hill – provided a musical background for Tinsley’s students, who read poetry, presented a biography of Miles Davis, and reenacted famous moments of black history.
“It was great to see the celebration of a part of history that is often neglected,” senior Rushdee Omar said.
Haines handled his instrument, the bass, with the skill of a tender lover. During the performance he was draped over his instrument like a willow tree, so deep in a jazz trance only a clinched smile appeared on his face, jamming to the wails from the saxophone or flute of Wiggins. Wiggins was as impressive with the smooth croon of his sax as with the higher whining of his flute. The Trio’s music was brought together with the steady and melodic beating of Taylor on the drums.
The silky jazz was mixed with CCE student Stephanie Davis’s reading of Maya Angelou’s poem “The Black Family Pledge,” and a reenactment of the Brown v. Board of Education case. After senior Kenyona Matthew’s presentation of the biography of Miles Davis, who Matthews described as “the Picasso of jazz,” the Trio played a motley collection from the nearly 45 years of Davis’s music.
The night finished with a presentation on the history of blacks in the United States with a focus on black history in the 20th century. “Playing here [at the college] was an easy fit,” Haines said. “The history of the United States can be found in the history of jazz.”
Tinsley’s students crowded onstage to give flowers and thanks to their professor. “It was wonderful,” Tinsley said. “Outstanding. I’m very, very pleased.”
The evening was brought into focus in the final lines of the poem that senior Kyle Brebner presented to the audience: “Who would we be without my friend, the African American?