Violinist Carter presents Black History Month lecture
"I play, of course, a miscellaneous instrument," said jazz violinist Regina Carter, presenting the Dr. Warrick L. Carter Lecture as part of Berklee's 2001 Black History Month Celebration. Carter, however, has done her part to take the violin from the fringe of the jazz world to center stage - her collaborations with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, and other top jazz figures, and her four solo albums have awakened listeners to the potential of an instrument often considered the property of Beethoven, not Billie Holiday.

Of course, trailblazing hasn't been easy for Carter, who broke up her comments with three performances, including her interpretation of Holiday's ballad "Don't Explain." She studied classical music for years because there was no one at the time who could teach her what she wanted to learn.

"There was no program for jazz players," Carter said. "They kind of looked at me like, 'You want to do what? We don't have anyone for you. We don't know what to do with you.'"

But Carter knew what to do for herself. She left her studies at the New England Conservatory and immersed herself in the jazz scenes of New York and her native Detroit.

"There was a thriving jazz scene there, and it didn't matter what instrument you played," she said.

Carter's touring work with Wynton Marsalis and Cassandra Wilson earned her praise from critics - and solicitations from record companies. But despite the commercial attention she received, Carter said that music executives are still too squeamish about backing unconventional instruments.

"A lot of times, record companies are afraid to sign instruments like mine because they think it won't sell well," Carter said. "The marketing department, I guess, can't see that far. A lot of record companies tend to be reactive, instead of proactive."

But there's no reason for companies to be so hesitant, Carter said. After all, we live in a nation where almost anything can be successfully marketed.

"I figure if we can sell Pet Rocks in this country, why can't we sell jazz?"

Carter is far from discouraged, however. She urged jazz string players to stick with their music.

"There is definitely a voice of string players, a strong voice, and we just have to keep the fight up."

Warrick L. Carter, no relation to Regina Carter, served as Berklee's dean of faculty and subsequently as the college's provost/vice president for academic affairs. Berklee's board of trustees established the annual Dr. Warrick L. Carter Lecture Series in recognition of Carter's contributions to the school, particularly his efforts on behalf of diversity and faculty development.

Music Career Expo and Job Fair 2001
Berklee's Music Career Expo and Job Fair 2001 built upon the success of last year's event (see "Help Wanted" in Giving to Berklee 2000), drawing 1,100 students, alumni, and members of the general public to Boston's Hynes Convention Center. The attendance was 200 greater than for the first expo and, perhaps not coincidentally, comes at a time when new technologies are reshaping the recording industry. As keynote speaker Donald Passman discussed in delivering the eighth annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture, it's not music business as usual.

Passman, music attorney and author of All You Need to Know about the Music Business, focused his remarks on Napster and other technological innovations that allow users to swap electronic music files at no cost. Passman suggested that while Napster may be reigned in by recording industry court challenges, it's too late to expect the technology to simply vanish.

"The genie is out of the bottle," Passman said. "We're getting a generation of people who think music should be free. They're growing up with idea that it's there for the taking, so why shouldn't it be free?...Having rights under the law and having the practical ability to enforce them are two entirely different questions. We're now moving away from Napster, which is a nice central, fat, target, to tiny underground nodules through which people are swapping music."

But Passman also cautioned that file swapping advocates would eventually regret having their way if they ever managed to institutionalize the right to free and unobstructed music commerce. The French Revolution, Passman asserted, proved that copyright is essential to preserving the arts.

"They banned copyright," Passman said. "You had people no longer going into the arts because they could no longer make a living....As much as we'd like to have free music as consumers, we have to understand that unless there's a way to make a living from their music, by creating it, that they can't survive as an industry."

Passman concluded that the feud between the recording industry and computer businesses will be resolved, perhaps with a low-priced alternative, because they really don't have a choice.

"They'll work it out because they can't do it without each other," Passman said.

The expo again featured expert panels and workshops, including Survivor: If You Have to Go It Alone, led by trustee and Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese, and How to Place Your Songs on the Radio, sponsored by local radio stations HOT 97.7 FM, WBCN FM, and WILD AM. In Artist/Record Relationships: Show Me the Money, led by Rounder Records general manager Paul Foley, the panelists discussed the artist-label dynamic.

"I think the generations are becoming a little bit smarter, a little bit savvier," said Ralph Jaccodine, manager of artists such as Ellis Paul and the Push Stars, "but when you're an artist, you're here to create something...it's really hard to try to create something the world is going to love and also know about the business pitfalls, the percentages, the negotiating."

Over at Napster: Good or Evil, led by Berklee trustee and Rykodisc chair Don Rose, at least one panelist had a position in common with Passman - and a quibble with the architects of the French Revolution.

"I don't think that artists should be consigned to having a low economic career because people can get their work for free," said entertainment attorney Mark Fischer.

Representatives from local and national record labels, entertainment companies, radio stations, music software and multimedia companies, CD and music distributors, instrument retailers, and nonprofit arts organizations transformed the convention center into a music industry exhibition. Among those manning booths at the expo were the American Federation of Musicians, Guitar Center, Northeast Performer magazine, and the U.S. Air Force Band of Liberty.

The annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture Series for Music Business/Management is Berklee's first endowed visiting lecture series, founded by the college's board of trustees in 1992 and named after James G. Zafris, a founding member of the board and its longtime chairman.

Sixth Annual Encore Gala
Berklee's Encore Gala, "one of the hottest fundraisers in town," according to the Boston Globe, set the Harvard Club on fire again with some the finest and most eclectic musical performances to be found under one roof all year. The $380,000 in proceeds (almost $60,000 of which was raised by the silent auction) went to Berklee City Music, the college's outreach program for talented urban youth.

Schwab Capital Markets was the event's lead sponsor for the third year running. Though Schwab is an international company, its support of the New Trustees reflects its commitment to local causes.

"Sponsoring the Encore Gala has given Schwab Capital Markets an opportunity to support music education for inner-city youth through the Berklee City Music program," says Schwab Capital Markets Senior Vice President Jim Leonard. "Schwab Capital Markets is proud of its extended partnership with Berklee and long-standing tradition of giving back to the community."

New Berklee Board of Trustees Chair Allan McLean and trustee Scott Benson cochaired the 2000 gala. Benson, CEO of XOFF Records, is a veteran Berklee donor, having established a songwriting scholarship, set up 100,000 e-mail accounts for Berklee alumni, and, most recently, funded the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance. For him, supporting the Encore Galais a natural responsibility of a trustee.

"It's important that we on the board participate in events," Benson says. "I was asked, and I happily said yes."

President Lee Eliot Berk and Mrs. Susan G. Berk again served as honorary cochairs of the gala. President Berk says that, in its sixth year, the fundraiser continues to thrive - and with good reason.

"All of us who support the Berklee Encore Gala," Berk says, "share enormous pride in providing the music education opportunity for talented urban teens that has meant so much to so many."

More than a hundred student and faculty musicians helped split Boston's Harvard Club into nine smaller venues, each with different sounds and styles to offer. Phil Wilson's Berklee Rainbow Band, one of the top student ensembles at the college, played big band standards, while the World Music Gallery performers presented the Music of Puerto Rico and the Music of Peru. Singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor appeared in the Superstar Ballroom, and not far away at the Blues Review, Al Kooper and the Funky Faculty rocked for hours.

"Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves," says Allan McLean, "and at the same time contributed to a very worthy cause."

Broadbent named first Alpert Professor
Pianist, Berklee alumnus, and Grammy Award-winning arranger Alan Broadbent '69 has known Herb Alpert indirectly for many years. There were the countless sessions Broadbent spent recording with Nelson Riddle, Johnny Mandel, and Natalie Cole at A&M Studios, which Alpert cofounded. Two of Broadbent's closest friends, Dave Frishberg and the late Nick Ceroli, had been members of Alpert's Tijuana Brass Band, and Broadbent had spent some musical afternoons at Alpert's Malibu home with tenor saxophone great Stan Getz, who wanted to assemble a West Coast band but passed away before it could come together. Now, Broadbent and the seven-time Grammy winner Alpert have been indirectly reunited, as Broadbent joins Berklee's faculty this fall as its first Alpert Professor.

"It's amazing to me how it all connects," Broadbent says.

The Herb Alpert Visiting Professor Program (see "Artists at Work" in Giving to Berklee 2000) was established through the support of Alpert's philanthropic organization, the Herb Alpert Foundation. Broadbent and future Alpert Professors (including jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Abe Laboriel) will teach at Berklee two weeks each academic year as part of a three-year commitment. Executive Vice President Gary Burton says Broadbent, who won his Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist Grammy for the song "Lonely Town" on the Quartet West CD Art of the Song, is the perfect person to inaugurate the Alpert Professorship.

"You could hardly ask for a better role model of the professional composer-arranger in today's contemporary music world than Alan Broadbent," Burton says. "He works in a variety of settings, film and television, as well as the jazz field, and balances his career as a writer with a very successful career as a world-renowned jazz pianist. This versatility is a hallmark of many of our successful Berklee graduates, and Alan is very effective at sharing his talents and experiences with our students during his visits to the campus."

Broadbent doesn't consider himself an inspiration, but while he might not notice his own influence, he has noticed how Berklee has contributed to the music industry.

"Wherever I go, in whatever musical situation I've been in, I see the role that Berklee has played in countless musical lives," the New Zealand native Broadbent says. "I would rather be a member of the family than a role model for it."

Broadbent may not have typed up his lesson plans yet, but he still knows what he wants to accomplish during his time on campus.

"I would like to convey my experiences as a working musician as personally and honestly as I can," Broadbent says, "and be open to all the questions...any student who has a passion for music might have about a career in the business."