Dana Hall

Assistant Professor of Jazz

B.M. (Percussion Performance), William Paterson College; M.M. (Composition), DePaul University; Ph. D. (Ethnomusicology) in progress, University of Chicago.

Jazz drummer, composer, and ethnomusicologist Dana Hall is a specialist in soul music and black popular culture in America. He is keenly interested in seeking moments of musical and social encounter; musical, cultural, and structural connections; and the sociological, philosophical, and, ultimately, political significance of musics of the African Diaspora.

Professor Hall’s work draws from studies found in anthropology, sociology, black studies, cultural theory, religion, and history and it both challenges and adds to existing philosophy concerning music and its role in the lives of folk, particularly black folks. His scholarly concentrations include the study of ethnicity, identity, and temporality in musics of the world; the study of popular musics of the world, particularly in the East; ethnic and popular musics of North and West Africa; and issues of cross-culturalism, colonialism, representation, and appropriation.

As a professional musician, Dana Hall’s experiences have been global and far-reaching, including performances on six continents and extensive concert, club, and international festival performances throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition to leading his own ensembles, serving as Music Director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and his membership in the Terell Stafford Quintet, Professor Hall is an in-demand drummer, composer, and arranger for a number of artists. The list of exceptional artists that Professor Hall has performed and recorded with includes Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Horace Silver, Ray Charles, Benny Golson, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller, Joe Lovano, Jackie McLean, Jimmy Heath, Lester Bowie, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, and the prestigious Grammy-nominated Carnegie Hall Jazz Band under the musical and artistic direction of trumpeter Jon Faddis

I believe that the relationship between teacher and student at the university level is one of shared responsibilities. I am dedicated to helping students grow musically, academically, and personally by encouraging them to think critically and to develop sophisticated tools for analyzing course materials. I work closely with my students using a Socratic teaching philosophy that encourages interaction and communal discourse. I believe that doing so ultimately provides each student with tools, methods, and guidance toward greater proficiency as performers and applied educators. My work with my students, whether in the classroom or rehearsal space, on the bandstand, or in private studio, tempers the rudimentary aspects of theory, technique, and performance practices necessarily associated with applied instruction with the ethnomusicological discourse one finds in any music department that values performance in concert with scholarship and composition. I believe that students, when provided with a safe, caring, and humane environment that encourages free exchange, welcome the opportunity to harmonize their personal musical experiences with the theoretical materials discussed and analyzed in class. This ultimately allows students to understand the ways that music can and does signify culturally, politically, and socially.