Contact Information

• bfelix@unca.edu
• 250-2311
• 216 Lipinsky Hall

Bio

Brian Felix holds a B.A. in Music from Rutgers College, a M.M. in Jazz Performance from DePaul University and a D.M.A. in Jazz Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. Felix’s research interests include jazz and improvised musics, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles. His work has been published in Jazz Perspectives and he is the co-author (with Peter Carney) of Interactive Listening: A New Approach to Music. Felix is also a professional keyboardist—he was co-leader of OM Trio, an acclaimed jazz-rock group that toured internationally between 1999-2004. He teaches classes on jazz theory and improvisation, jazz history, keyboard skills, music business, the Beatles and the Grateful Dead.

Education

• B.A., Rutgers University
• M.M., DePaul University
• D.M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

Courses Taught

• MUSC 129 - Jazz Ensemble
• MUSC 178 - Creative Listening
• MUSC 293 - Harmony and Improvisation I
• MUSC 294 - Harmony and Improvisation II
• MUSC 295 – Jazz and Contemporary Theory & Practice I
• MUSC 296 – Jazz and Contemporary Theory & Practice II
• MUSC 345 - Defining the Beatles: Music, Image and Influence
• MUSC 346 - The Grateful Dead: Music, Counterculture and Society
• MUS 357 - Jazz History
• MUSC 382 - Music Business and Industry I
• MUSC 383 - Music Business and Industry II

Ensembles Directed

• UNCA Jazz Quintet
• Rhythm & Blues Ensemble
• Funk/Fusion Ensemble
• Antonio Carlos Jobim Ensemble
• Miles Davis Ensemble
• Beatles Ensemble
• Herbie Hancock Ensemble
• Standards Ensemble
• Duke Ellington Ensemble
• Frank Zappa Ensemble
• Steely Dan Ensemble
• Cole Porter Ensemble
• Nina Simone Ensemble
• Buena Vista Social Club Ensemble
• Beatles-Jazz Ensemble

Publications

Performances

• For videos of Dr. Felix performing, click here.

Presentations

• UNCA Vinyl Party: "Workingman's Dead" - Lecture and listening session at Citizen Vinyl, Asheville, NC, September 28, 2021
• "What Does Psychedelic Music Sound Like?" - Panel chair and presenter at the Popular Culture Association Conference, virtual, June 3, 2021
• "Special Listening Session: Eyes of the World" - Moderator and co-presenter (with Jesse Jarnow) at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, virtual, February 27, 2021. 
• "Beethoven the Improviser" lecture as part of the Department of Music Lecture Series at UNC Asheville, January 28, 2020. 
• "Tempo, Diet Pills, and Mythology on The Grateful Dead" at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2019. 
• “Chasing Banjo Joe: Jug Band Music and the Early Grateful Dead” at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2017
• “The Beatles in 3: A Guided Listening Session” lecture as part of the Department of Music Lecture Series at UNC Asheville, October 25, 2016.
• “You Can Never Tell: Understanding Grateful Dead Musical Eras Through the Keyboardists” at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2016
• “The Development of ‘Playing in the Band’ as an Improvisational Vehicle, 1971-1972” at the So Many Roads: The World in the Grateful Dead Conference in San Jose, CA, November, 6, 2014
• Interactive Listening presentation and teacher training for Duval County Public Schools, Jacksonville, FL
• “Raising the Dead: A Guided Listening Session” panel presentation at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference in Albuquerque, NM, February 2014
• “From Blues to Weirdness: The Evolving Roles of the Grateful Dead Keyboardists, 1965-70” - Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2014
• Interactive Listening presentation at the Midwest Clinic, Chicago, IL, December 2013
• “Wes Montgomery in the mid-1960s: The Creation of a Jazz-Pop Crossover Paradigm” at the Society for American Music Conference, Little Rock, AR, March, 7, 2013
• “Hornsby/Hunter: Exploring the Boundaries of Popular Song in ‘Might as Well Be Me’” at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2012

Personal Website

www.brianfelix.com