Trill 101
The Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College has commissioned Brooklyn-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer to create "Trill 101" as part of her ongoing Make Jazz Trill Again project. The weeklong residency, running from September 30 to October 4, 2024, will bring together Skidmore and Capital Region community members in a multidisciplinary exploration of jazz, its roots, and its future.
During the residency, Charles and her team — Yunie Mojica, Jonathan Michel, Zacche’us Paul, and Darah Golub — will participate in class visits, podcast and video recordings, and jam sessions, building on the success of a spring 2024 collaboration that invited students and community members to an open jam session onstage at the Zankel Music Center.
The fall residency will interrogate the evolution of jazz within institutional frameworks and contextualize the art form within its cultural roots. It will explore themes of access, equity, education, technology, and artistic practice, bringing faculty and students across disciplines into the conversation.
Make Jazz Trill Again Spring Jam Session in the Arthur Zankel Music Center
“I felt completely welcomed,” recent Skidmore alum Elán Velasquez Stadelmann ’24 said about the spring jam session. Lydia Watkins ’24, another spring participant, described it as “a very moving and powerful experience.”
The residency will also create new content for “Trill 101,” an educational video that encapsulates the ethos behind Make Jazz Trill Again, which Charles invented in the mid-2010s to revive the independent jazz scene for the digital age. Since then, Make Jazz Trill Again has evolved from a simple hashtag to a dynamic network producing performances, podcasts, and events that merge the two. Footage will also be incorporated in an upcoming multimedia performance featuring Charles, her collaborators, and Skidmore students in February. Collectiveffort, a Troy-based creative agency, will assist in capturing content throughout the residency.
Attend an event:
Melanie Charles and co-host Yunie Mojica will lead a community conversation with Grammy Award winning jazz drummer, composer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington. Carrington is an NEA Jazz Master, four-time Grammy-winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator, and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. This event is a live taping of the , free and open to the public.
Join an open jam session and fundraiser featuring musicians, rappers, and singers of all ages and experience levels. Melanie Charles, Yunie Mojica, Zacche’us Paul, and the house band will lead the evening, which also serves to support Saratoga’s only Black lodge, celebrating over 100 years of community history.
Thanks to our sponsors
The residency is presented in partnership with Skidmore’s Music Department and the Office of Special Programs and co-sponsored by Black Studies, Gender Studies, Intergroup Relations, Arts Administration, Management and Business, the Schupf Family IdeaLab, and other academic departments. Additional support for the project is provided by the Pia Scala-Zankel ’92 and Jimmy Zankel ’92 Residency in the Performing Arts, the Zankel Music Fund, the McCormack Artist-Scholar Residency Fund, and the Office of the President.