As a 5-year-old, Maria Jacobs found her love for singing in a church choir. Raised in a musical household, Jacobs quickly fell for the performances of Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb. It was during this time that she knew jazz was meant for her.
Now as an adult, Jacobs, from Brooklyn, Ohio, is a professional jazz singer, and in 2013 she began her teaching career. She teaches Applied Vocal Jazz as an adjunct professor in Kent State University’s School of Music.
In addition to teaching and her live performances, Jacobs recently released her ninth album, “Back at the Bop Stop.”
Jacobs says that students studying with her learn two things. First, how to sing. Second, a solid understanding of the history of American music and the Great American Songbook. Jacobs believes in a cross curriculum while teaching voice. She says music education includes many things besides music itself, most especially, history.
“I quote Wynton Marsalis a lot,” Jacobs said. “He says in Italy, every Italian knows that their country's music is opera. In Austria, they know their country's music is the waltz. And in America, we all need to know that our country's music is jazz and blues. That is the root of American music. In addition, there'd be no American music if it wasn't for the songs of oppression from where the blues emerged.”
Jacobs has been teaching at Kent State for five years and the program has blossomed in that time.
“The studio has grown tremendously since 2018,” Jacobs said. “I started that fall semester with five half-hour students, and today I have 16 students, several of them taking a full-hour class. One semester I actually had more than 20.”
Since Jacobs last talked with Kent State Today, she’s had two albums released, her most recent one on Jan. 20. In addition, Jacobs is set to have her book, "Grateful: Faith, Healing, and the Gift of Music," published some time this year.
Bobby Selvaggio, associate professor and director of jazz studies at Kent State, plays on two studio bonus tracks on Jacobs' new album and Bryan Thomas, an adjunct bass professor, plays live bass.
Jacobs expressed how thankful she is for her band. Her album features Rock Wehrmann on piano, Jamey Haddad on drums for all live tracks and on one of the studio tracks, Chris Anderson on trombone and horn arrangement, Jack Schantz on trumpet and flugelhorn, Rock Wehrmann on piano, Kent State adjunct professor Aidan Plank on bass and Mark Gonder on drums.
“I had a lot of performing and musical experience, and I was still an accomplished musician,” Jacobs said. “But I adored teaching kids, too, so at age 40 I went back to school and got my teaching license.”
To see Maria Jacobs' website, please visit www.mariajacobs.com.
To read more about Kent State’s School of Music, please visit www.kent.edu/music.