Abstract
Although many people who listen to American popular music may not realize it, they have most likely heard the playing of trombonist Jim Pugh. Pugh is one of the most prolific trombonists currently active as a performer, composer, and music educator. After studying with Emory Remington at the Eastman School of Music, Pugh began his career touring with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd and then Chick Corea’s Return to Forever band, going on to become the top-call freelance trombonist in New York City for over 30 years. Pugh has played on hundreds of artistic projects including film scores, Broadway shows, orchestral and symphonic works, commercial music, jazz and big band music, and has performed and recorded with some of the most prominent artists in contemporary Western music. As an educator, Pugh has taught at SUNY-Purchase College and currently serves as the Professor of Jazz Trombone and Jazz Composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a position he has held since 2005. The goal of this research is to analyze a large sample of Pugh’s instructional materials, warm-up and fundamental routines, curriculum, and substantial interviews with Pugh and his former students to discern pedagogical content and organization, and reasoning behind the instructional method at different academic levels. Interviews with Pugh will include a series of questions revolving around nine different subject areas related to his teaching. This research will show that Jim Pugh’s instructional method is a purposeful approach based on core brass fundamental techniques from multiple sources, the development of audiation and improvisation skills, and the use of a wide variety of repertoire to encourage the development of a technically capable and musically versatile 21st-century trombonist. Pugh’s instructional method must be preserved and studied so that future trombonists and educators may benefit from these pedagogical methods.