As part of the 2015 Knox Winter Jazz Series, musician Stu Mindeman provided Knox students with insight into his latest project, an album that showcases the poetry of Langston Hughes. In Your Waking Eyes features Hughes' words in a musical context created by Mindeman that blends jazz, soul, and West African influences.

The Stu Mindeman Group performed a concert on January 10 at Knox College, and the musicians also presented a workshop earlier in the day that was open to members of the Knox community and the public.

Students said they appreciated the opportunity to spend time with Mindeman and the members of his band.

"It was really cool the way he used the words of the poems and then developed the music around the poems' emotions," said Crystal Singletary, a Knox sophomore who plays tenor saxophone in the Knox Jazz Ensemble.

"It was phenomenal," added Knox junior Linda Sanabria, a music education major who plays trumpet in the Knox Jazz Ensemble. She said she especially enjoyed seeing the interaction between the musicians in Mindeman's group.

"It shows how professional and well-crafted they are as musicians," she said. In any musical ensemble, she added, "there's a sense of community and working together as a group that you have to have."

At the workshop, Mindeman and members of his band spoke about their approach to the music of In Your Waking Eyes and played some selections. They also discussed Hughes' poetry and the relationship between Hughes' words and Mindeman's compositions.

Mindeman said he is drawn to the emotions and imagery of Hughes' poetry. For the album, he chose 11 Hughes poems, including "Africa," "Blues at Dawn," and "Peace."

"Those were the ones that jumped out at me," Mindeman said. "Just reading them, I got musical ideas."

Vocalist Chás Kimbrough said she tries to focus on the emotion of the lyrics of a song more than on its melody.

The Winter Jazz Series is one facet of the Knox Jazz Program, which provides students with immersive experiences in jazz performance and the chance to engage with the academic study of jazz history, theory, composition, and arranging. The Winter Jazz Series brings to campus innovative jazz artists who are known for their fusion of diverse styles and traditions.

The events at Knox were supported by the Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival, Knox College Music Department, Knox College Africana Studies Department, Association for Black Culture Centers, Stellyes Center for Global Studies, John and Elaine Fellowes Fund, and Galesburg Community Foundation.

More information about Stu Mindeman and the In Your Waking Eyes project is available at http://www.stumindeman.com/live/