Don Glasgo
Don arrived in Hanover in 1974, after receiving a Masters Degree in Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois, intending to study composition with Christian Wolff. While in Graduate School he played in a Jazz Ensemble directed by the legendary John Garvey. After finding work as a staff member in Dartmouth’s Kresge Physical Sciences Library, he started working with the Hanover High School jazz band and eventually went to watch a Coast performance in the Top of the Hop. In his oral history, Glasgo recalled how he watched members of the Coast argue with each other on stage over what tune to call and who gets the next solo. Seeing this disarray, he stepped in and offered to help lead the band. This began the modern Coast. After taking leadership in 1975 and beginning to receive modest support from the Music Department in 1976, the Coast became one of the official student ensembles of the Hopkins Center for the Arts in 1984.
Under Don’s leadership, the Barbary Coast gained more institutional resources to be able to host artists for weeklong residencies, in which he'd organize master classes and other curricular engagements. Don's guest artists ranged from straight-ahead legends like Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry, to Latin jazz pioneers like Eddie Palmieri and Jerry Gonzalez, to avant-garde artists in Bill Cole’s milieu like Rivers, Hemphill, Lester Bowie, and Sun Ra. According to biographer John Szwed, Dartmouth was the only school to host Sun Ra for an artist residency during his lifetime. Over his 40-year stewardship of the ensemble, Don hosted over 90 guest artists. His work with the Coast extended to the local community through his jazz workshops at local schools and through Jazzlines, a newsletter he wrote and published for the Upper Valley jazz community to provide insight on the guest artists, with over 50 editions. Follow this link to view a list of concerts by the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble from 1975-2017.
In his 2010 Commencement speech, Barbary Coast saxophonist Greg Hart summarized Don's pedagogy by recounting a conversation Don had had with guest artist Lester Bowie: “Don loves to point out that the ability to improvise is not simply a musical skill, but also a life skill, and as legendary jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie once asked, ‘When you’re being operated on, do you want a doctor who knows how to improvise or not?’ For most of us, our Dartmouth experience has not focused directly on our future careers, but I like to think, that in various ways, Dartmouth has taught us all how to improvise.”
Listen to the concert recording of the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble's "Tribute to Chico O'Farrill" with Arturo O'Farrill, Andy Gonzalez, and Jim Seeley. November 7, 1998. (Dartmouth sign-in required)