BRATTLEBORO’S VERMONT JAZZ CENTER BRINGS GREAT MUSIC TO SOUTHERN VERMONT.
STORY BY MATT STECKLER
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY VERMONT JAZZ CENTER
On a Sunday in October, morning light peeks in on Eugene Uman and Elsa Borrero, Co-Directors of the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro. They are sipping Colombian brewed coffee and basking in the recent memory of another triumphant concert on the previous night (Vincent Herring’s Something Else: All-Star Tribute to Soul Jazz). Eugene, an accomplished pianist in his own right, was particularly impressed by the arrangements written for a seven-piece band: “Wow, what a top-level group – excellent musicianship, interaction, and energy!”
The Vermont Jazz Center states its mission as being “dedicated to creating, promoting, and preserving jazz for a broad constituency of artists, students, and the public through concerts, education, and workshops.” From its home base in the Cotton Mill since 1997, VJC has grown and nurtured a first-rate concert series, a summer workshop, classes, jam sessions, community outreach efforts, and a growing archive, all made possible through sponsorships, grants, scholarships, and a loyal audience.
That’s a summary, but the organization is so much more. “For starters,” says Uman, “we’ve established ourselves as a place that has a sense of stability, and people come to our concerts expecting high quality performances that are of the New York level.” Eugene draws on his own professional connections and regularly attends events of artistic merit, such as NYC’s Winter Jazz Festival, to get ideas for programming the most cutting-edge, current music available. Borrero, for her part, is the driving organizational force that ensures that vision can become a reality. Eugene says, “Elsa’s really the one who keeps her eye on the prize and understands the way that the strategies for survival can work, so that we can have a clear budget and reach out and just keep things on track.”
Legendary Roots
VJC wasn’t always operating on this scale. It was the brainchild of guitar legend Attila Zoller, who settled in Newfane, VT in the 1970s and began to program one-off concerts, as well as an informal summer workshop, now matured into a well-known annual residency. Howard Brofsky, a trumpeter and a teacher in the acclaimed jazz graduate program at Queens College, met Uman in the 1980s when the latter worked by day as a forestry consultant, by night as a musician. He encouraged Uman to attend the Queens College program. While living in NYC, Uman met Borrero, who lived in the same apartment complex.
In the next several years, the couple lived both in New York, and in Borrero’s hometown of Medellín, Colombia, where she had honed her production skills through working in theater, dance, photography, and children’s music settings. Together, they also started a jazz festival and university jazz programs in Medellín. But with two young children in tow, the couple began to seek a new location for raising a family. Adds Borrero, “We decided on Vermont, because this was where Eugene had lived for many years before. And the other important piece is we wanted to start a music school.”
Zoller’s health at this time had deteriorated, and he began to look for a successor for his Center. On Brofsky’s urging, he offered the stewardship in 1997 to Uman, and a new era for VJC was born. Key to the Center’s continued stability was the Cotton Mill, former home of the Dunham shoe factory. VJC’s original Cotton Mill space had only 40 seats, but today it has 250 seats within 3,000 square feet, while the Summer Workshop is hosted at the Putney School.
“A Well-Oiled Machine”
One of the ways the Center has distinguished itself is to build a legacy that helps preserve jazz as living history, through an ever growing archival collection of donated videos, records, CDs, and books. In addition, thanks to a long-term fundraising campaign, the staff has assembled an online archive set to launch in January 2025. Because of the project’s expense, the Center took it on in phases, investing with smaller grants as they rolled in.
This is one essential reality of running a nonprofit, muses Borrero. “When you get a project sponsored, it is the best thing that can happen to an artist, but still, because you’re an artist, we do it with money or without money.” That sustained effort and patience has led eventually to a staff now consisting of administrators, an archivist, videographer, sound person, lawyer, and copyright management specialist, so as to be able to present the archives legally.
But archival work is just one manner in which the team flexes its nonprofit chops. The education arm of VJC leans heavily on presenting both a marquee summer workshop that attracts top flight faculty and students nationwide, and a double-punch of year-round classes and outreach to schools, drawing in local talent of all ages. Julian Gerstin, President of the VJC Board, has witnessed over time the connection between educating the community and growing a dedicated, informed audience for its concert series. “You still have to draw them in. They still have to be into the idea of jazz in the first place. And I think, from what I glean from Eugene and Elsa, is that they’ve been chipping away at the branding and the marketing of jazz to the community for a long time.” Potential donors have seen the effect of those efforts and are moved to contribute scholarship funds as a result. “It’s a well-oiled machine.”
There are other crucial aspects to running the organization that the directors and the board must address: insurance policies, tax requirements, personnel changes, budget projections, donor appeals, and so forth. During one recent stretch between administrative personnel hires, members of the board and the directors pitched in to cover such concert production-related functions as running hospitality, tickets, and registrations. “It was really fun!” exclaimed Gerstin. That all-in positive mindset has proven contagious within the organization.
Expanding the Vision
The Center has consistently programmed the most in-demand artists on the scene – Jonathan Blake, Makaya McCraven, Jazzmeia Horn, and Artemis are just a few recent examples – and that can come with a cost. While some organizations might only program the surest bets for ticket sales, Uman is true to his mission to put the music first. Adds Gerstin, “Eugene knows his audience. He knows what artists will bring in a crowd. On the other hand, he wants to take chances. So he’s always going back and forth between a show that he knows will bring in people or a show that might not but he really likes the artist.” The approach clearly works. Many concerts are sold out. Patrons come early and stay late. They listen deeply to the solos, compositions, arrangements, and band interaction. Notes Uman, “They want to get the appetizer, the main course, and the dessert. So they’re going to stay for the whole concert.”
Another way the organization has expanded on its visibility is through its flagship repertory ensembles, the VJC Big Band and Sextet, led by Rob Freeberg. (I’ve personally been lucky enough to perform in both!) While the big band features prominent special guest artists and performs at the annual scholarship gala, the sextet goes into the schools as performing clinicians. Many of the fine performers heard in these ensembles got their start attending the weekly VJC hosted jam sessions. The diversity of offerings in ensemble classes – from Samba and Latin Jazz (both co-taught by Gerstin), to jazz choirs, to Blue Note era small combos – reinforces knowledge introduced in outreach clinics and workshops. In the Latin Jazz ensemble, students from their teens into their youthful eighties not only play tunes, they clap rhythms, sing Spanish lyrics, and even learn a few dance moves. The Center also has coordinated with several area schools, offering for younger people to attend VJC concerts free of charge. Uman has learned that in order to attract students to jazz, it’s important to emphasize the fun, social aspects of the music and then get them excited about the creative and expressive possibilities. “If those students have come through our program, education, or hearing the music, they keep coming back because it’s so much fun and so enriching culturally.”
“Invest in Our Future”
Twenty-seven years in, Uman and Borrero show no signs of slowing down. Observes Gerstin, “They’re really well organized, they’re really honest, they’re really outgoing, they’re really friendly, really welcoming, and they just get things done.” Seeing how far they’ve come – from the couple living off just $1,000 a month at one point – the Center now has a formula that works and attracts new opportunities organically. In recent years, Uman has been awarded the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education by the Vermont Arts Council, an Acclaim Award from Chamber Music America; together, Uman and Borrero together were named 2024 Jazz Heroes by the Jazz Journalists Association. That level of recognition is sure to reap new dividends for the Center. Adds Uman, “We’re now at a point where we can invest in our future.”
And what will that future look like? As a success story, Vermont Jazz Center can be a model to other nonprofits bringing jazz to rural and more remote areas. VJC members will nurture on a larger scale its complementary goals of programming and teaching cutting-edge jazz, and preserving the living history of the art form. The greater Brattleboro community will continue to play its part, because, in Borrero’s words, “You’re not anything without a village, right?”
For more information or to make a donation:
Vermont Jazz Center
72 Cotton Mill Hill,
Suite 222
Brattleboro, VT
vtjazz.org