John Burrell Bass, III, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Rhodes College

2000 North Parkway

Memphis, TN, 38112

bassj@rhodes.edu

CURRENT POSITION

 2022-Present – Associate Professor, Rhodes College                                                                                                                                                                         

EDUCATION

 2008 – Ph.D., Historical Musicology, University of Memphis                                             

Dissertation: “Rhetoric and Musical Ornamentography: Tradition in Sixteenth-Century Improvisation”

2002 – M.M., Jazz Studies, University of Memphis                                                                          

1999 – B.M., Jazz Studies, University of Southern Mississippi                                                                                                        

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

2010-Present – Director of the Mike Curb Institute for Music, Rhodes College

2019-2022 – Assistant Professor (tenure track), Rhodes College

2022, 2020 – Visiting Instructor of Guitar, Columbia University Teachers College

2017-2020 – Director of the Clarence Day Scholars, Rhodes College

2009-2019 – Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), Rhodes College

2004-2008 – Adjunct Instructor, Rhodes College

2001-2009 – Adjunct Instructor, University of Memphis

2001-2009 – Adjunct Instructor, Southwest Tennessee Community College

SELECTED PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS 

2023 – “White Supremacy and the Major Scale: Reframing Narratives to Teach the Blues, Improvise, and Check in with Students,” Research & Issues in Music Education: Vol. 17: No. 1 (https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/rime/vol17/iss1/2)

2015 – s.v. “Sam Rivers,” “Stuff Smith,” “Joe Beck,” “Ed Blackwell,” Billy Higgins, and

“Charlie Hunter.” New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd Edition

2009 – “Improvisation in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Lessons from Rhetoric and Jazz,” Performance Practice Review 14

2008 – “Would Caccini Approve?: A closer look at Egerton 2971 and florid monody.” Early Music 36

SELECTED PUBLIC-FACING PUBLICATIONS

2020 – “Community and Creativity – Even in Quarantine,” Remote – But Close series, Rhodes College

2020 – “What Ellis Marsalis did for Memphis Jazz,” Daily Memphian

2019 – “Memphis-born singer Vera Little: From Manassas High to the Vatican,” Daily Memphian

2019 – “Why is Being a ‘Girl Drummer’ Still a Noteworthy Thing?,” Daily Memphian

2017 – “Lessons from Elvis on Inspiring Today’s Young People,” Philadelphia Inquirer

SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2024 – “Blues in Mary’s Flat: Recentering guitarist Mary Osborne’s recordings from the 1940s in the history and pedagogy of jazz guitar,” given at the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, US Branch (IASPM-US) annual conference (Philadelphia).

2024 – “Blues in Mary’s Flat: Recentering guitarist Mary Osborne’s recordings from the1940s in the history and pedagogy of jazz guitar,” given at the annual conference of the College Music Society, Southern Chapter annual meeting (Memphis TN).

2021 – “Teaching Improvisation: Reframing Approach and Access,” given at the fifth-annual Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Conference: “Historical Performance: Theory, Practice, and Interdisciplinarity, An International Summit of Directors of Historical Performance Programs in Higher Education” (Champaign-Urbana, presented virtually).

2021 – White Supremacy and the Major Scale,” given at the College Music Society, Southern Chapter annual meeting (presented virtually).

2019 – “Historiography of Opera Education and Race: Vera Little and Manassas High,” given at Opera and Race: Celebrating the Past and Building the Future symposium (Memphis, TN).

2012 – “Rhetoric and Music through Improvisation: A Look at Similarities between Classical Rhetorical Texts and Sixteenth-Century Italian Ornamentation Treatises,” given at the American Musicological Society, South Central Chapter annual meeting (Jackson, TN).

2009 – “Rhetoric and Music from an Improvisational Point of View,” given at The Renaissance Society of America annual meeting (Los Angeles.)

2008 – “Intellectual Structure and Regional Style in Sixteenth-Century Ornamentation,” given at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (University of Bangor, Bangor, U.K.).

SELECTED CREATIVE ACTIVITY AND PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCES

2024 – “Nowhere in Between” by John Bass (forthcoming). Album of original material produced, recorded, and performed by John Bass. Release date set for 4/24/24.

2023 – Festvial internacional de Guitarra, Cartagena Colombia. Invited performer and clinician at international guitar festival.

2022 – Germantown Performing Arts Center Summer Soirée series. “Sinatra at the Sands,” featuring Jeremy Shrader and the New Memphis Hepcats.

2021 – Eddie Cotton, Jr., Rhodes College Family Weekend concert. Performed on guitar.

2021 – Bobby Rush, Levitt Shell, Memphis, TN. Performed on guitar

2019 – Whitman@200, Live Oak with Moss. Composed and performed original score for a set of images created by Caldecott Award-winning artist Brian Selznick, which are featured in the recent publication of a lost poem by Walt Whitman, Live Oak, with Moss, edited by Karen Karbiener

2016 – George Coleman, Levitt Shell, Memphis, TN. Performed on guitar

2015 – Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell. Opera Memphis. Performed on theorbo and baroque guitar

ADDITIONAL RECORDING CREDITS

2021 – Bobby Rush and the Curb Collective featuring Eddie Cotton, “America the Beautiful” (New Arboretum Records).  Arranger, Co-producer, Musical Director, and performer

2020 – The Grahamwood Collective (New Arboretum Records)

2018 – Eden Brent, “An Eden Brent Christmas with Bob Dowell” (Yellow Dog Records).

2014 – The Memphis 13 original soundtrack for documentary film

SELECTED INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL, AND LOCAL MEDIA RECOGNITION

2022 – “Sidebar” podcast, Daily Memphian

2022 – “Billboard names Rhodes a 2022 Top Music Business School,” Rhodes Magazine

2022 – “Billboard’ 2022 Top Music Business Schools Revealed,” Billboard

2022 – “Local College Named a Top Music Business School,” Memphis Parent

2022 – “Meanwhile in Memphis” podcast, New Memphis Institute/WYXR

2021 – “Rhodes, Bobby Rush create Memphis Version of ‘America the Beautiful,’” by Ezra Wheeler. Daily Memphian        

2021 – “Bobby Rush to get Honorary Doctorate from Rhodes College,” by John Beifuss. Commercial Appeal

2020 – “2020 Top Music Business Schools.” Billboard

2020 – “Tullimentam.” BBC Radio Orkney

2020 – “Billboard Names Rhodes a Top Music Business Program,” by Jared Boyd. Daily Memphian

2019 – “Memphis 200: Our City, Our Stories.” WMCTV Memphis. Interviewed for Part 4 of the series, “The Memphis Sound”

2019 – “Moving the Needle: The Mike Curb Institute at Rhodes College has students learning from Music Maestros,” by Sam Cicci. Inside Memphis Business

CLINICS, WORKSHOPS, PANEL DISCUSSIONS

2023 – Institución Universiraria Bellas Artes y Ciencias de Bolivar (Cartagena de Indias, Colombia): invited guitar clinician for music students.

2021 – MTSU Jazz Guitar Masterclass Series: invited clinician for masterclass series at Middle Tennessee State University

2019 – Rhodes College Faculty Lair Series, High Impact Practices: invited panelist with international scholars Nancy Budwig and Michael Bamberg

2019 – St. George’s Independent School: invited clinician for St. George’s Jazz Band

2019 – Germantown Performing Arts Center Art Saavy public lecture series

2017 – Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival: invited panelist for “The Father of Music Education” at the Benjamin Hooks Public Library

2016 – STAX Museum of American Soul Music: invited panelist for Hot Buttered Symphony

2016 – University of Memphis Jazz Week Festival and High School Band Competition: adjudicator and clinician

2015 – Tennessee Music Education Association, All-State Jazz Band adjudicator

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

2023-Present – ArtsMemphis board member

2023-Present – International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASMP)

2020-Present – Recording Academy (NARAS) professional member

2018- Present – College Music Society

2013-Present – Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame voting committee member.

Notes that have been awarded through my nominations:

o   Donald Brown (2024)

o   Gerald Wilson (2019)

o   Harold Mabern (2018)

o   Lil’ Hardin Armstrong (2017)

o   Booker Little (2016)

o   Emerson Able (2014)

o   Charles Lloyd (2012)

2018-2023 – Memphis Slim Collaboratory board member

2015-2017 – Levitt Shell Preservation Board

2013-2014 – New Memphis Institute Fellow (S14 graduate)

2015-2017 – Legacy Memphis board member

2004-2012 – American Musicological Society