Brian Felix
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. He was the co-leader, keyboardist, and primary composer in OM Trio, an acclaimed San Francisco-based jazz-rock group that toured internationally between 1999-2004. His most recent album, Brian Felix Organ Trio Level Up, was released in 2025 on Slimtrim Records. Felix’s research interests include jazz and improvised musics, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles. His work has been published in Jazz Perspectives, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, Grateful Dead Studies, and he is the co-author (with Peter Carney) of Interactive Listening: A New Approach to Music. He teaches classes on jazz theory and improvisation, ensembles, jazz history, keyboard skills, music business, the Beatles, and the Grateful Dead. Dr. Felix was Chair of the Department of Music from 2019-2023.
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 295 – Harmony and Improvisation I
- MUSC 296 – Harmony and Improvisation 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
- Wayne Shorter Ensemble
- UNCA X-Tet
- 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
- “Tempo, Diet Pills, and Mythology on the Grateful Dead” in Grateful Dead Studies Vol. 5 (2021/2022).
- “Teaching (and Studying) the Music of the Grateful Dead” in Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy 9.1 (2022).
- 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
- “‘The [Tone]Wheel is Turning’”: The Hammond Organ, the Grateful Dead, and 1960s Rock” at the Popular Culture Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 17, 2025
- “‘Prepare Yourself to Be Open’”: In Memoriam Phil Lesh” panel presentation at the
Popular Culture Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 18, 2025 - “Keith Godchaux’s Piano on ‘Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” at the Popular
Culture Association Conference, Chicago, IL, March 29, 2024 - 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
Personal Website
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