Texas Jazz Educators Association Hall of Fame

Paris Rutherford

A little bit about me …

My musical life began at age 4 with piano lessons from my mother. From there, my life quickly expanded to include music at every level and opportunity. As an instrumentalist, I played trombone in the Dallas Symphony, dance bands, and countless jingle sessions. As a writer, I enjoyed many opportunities to write commercial music for adverising and television networks, and arrangements for big band and symphony.

A stint as a recording engineer led me to one of the loves of my life, vocal jazz group singing. I started writing for a group of first-call jingle singers, and we had a great time interpreting standards and popular tunes. Travel to Europe for writing opportunities further broadened my horizons and was an exciting time in my life.

Ready for a new challenge, I returned to the states, and began a new career in teaching music at the college level. Starting off at the University of Colorado at Denver, I taught Jazz performance, jazz theory and arranging, as well as directing a vocal jazz ensemble. In 1978 I was hired to teach instrumental arranging and vocal jazz performance at the University of North Texas, (NTSU at that early time!). I loved my 30 years of teaching at UNT and the opportunity to work with a great faculty and so many incredible and talented students who are now involved in performing, writing and teaching music across the globe.

I retired from UNT as a Regents Professor Emeritus in 2009. Not ready to lay down my pencil or let my musical interests wane, I formed a community based vocal jazz ensemble, “The New Collection”. For seven years, we enjoyed making music together, performing locally and at music festivals in the U.S.

My life now is full of arranging music for different ensembles and in varying styles. You can find links to published vocal jazz charts in the Vocal Charts sections, and information about the two books I’ve written in the “books” section.

I am available for online lessons in jazz and popular arranging - vocal and instrumental. Please contact me for more information!

I would love to arrange for your vocal ensemble or jazz band. Please contact me and we can get started!

parisrutherford@icloud.com                                  https://www.parisrutherford.com/

Dan Haerle

Dr. Howard Harris

Bart Marantz

Dr. Robert Morgan

Bill Snodgrass

Dr. F.A. “Mickey” Tull

Curt Wilson

Leon Breeden

J. Wayne Dyess

Dr. M.E. “Gene” Hall

Darrell Holt

Conrad “Prof” Johnson

Dr. John Murphy

Edward Trongone