
Brian Felix
Professor of MusicContact 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
- "Teaching (and Studying) the Music of the Grateful Dead" in Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy 9.1 (2022). (forthcoming)
- Book Review of David Malvinni's Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation in Grateful Dead Studies Vol. 4 (2019/2020).
- "Wes Montgomery’s A Day in the Life: The Anatomy of a Jazz-Pop Crossover Album” in Jazz Perspectives 8.3 (2014)
- Interactive Listening: A New Approach to Music (with Peter Carney), now in its 5th edition (2015)
- Rock Becomes Jazz: Interpretations of Popular Music by Improvising Artists in the 1960s - DMA Thesis (2010)
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