Before jazz musician Thaddeus Tukes (Bienen ’16) came to Northwestern, his major didn’t exist. Then, Tukes created his own concentration in his instrument, the vibraphone — the first of its kind at a non-conservatory university.
Now, he’s a Chicago-based artist playing concerts across the country. This Friday, he brings his vibes back to Evanston with a performance at Studio5.
A listen to Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home” on a CD player at Tukes’ grandmother’s home sparked his early love for jazz and the vibraphone, colloquially known as “the vibes.” The percussion instrument has resonators that produce a special vibrato effect and a damper pedal that sustains or mutes a note.
While Tukes is also a composer, rapper, singer and pianist, the vibraphone is core to his musical identity.
“The vibes have reflected and colored my personality,” Tukes said. “It shaped the way that I hear music and the types of harmonies that I want to access.”
At NU, Tukes majored in jazz piano and vibraphone and minored in music criticism.
From jazz combo rehearsals to venturing on excursions for a reporting assignment, Tukes juggled his hectic class schedule while serving on the Associated Student Government. He also led The Syndicate, a student band that reigned victorious in Dillo Day Battle of the Bands for three years in a row.
As a professional, he now performs with his own ensemble of musicians, whose faces change depending on the repertoire he is working on.
At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, he formed the Chicago Freedom Ensemble (CFE), comprising Chicago jazz artists.
Drummer Gustavo Cortiñas Fouilloux (Bienen M.M. ’13) first met Tukes at NU, where they played at a few jam sessions together. Several years later, Cortiñas Fouilloux accepted Tukes’ invitation to join the CFE without a second thought.
“He’s a soulful, incredibly rhythmically adept performer who expresses joy behind every note he plays, and he shares that with everybody who listens,” Cortiñas Fouilloux said. “Thanks to Thaddeus’ leadership, we were able to perform at many demonstrations and different community events that fostered engagement within the Black community in Chicago and beyond, which I thought was a really beautiful thing.”
CFE frequently performed jazz standards, spirituals, pop music and original arrangements at protests around the city, so much so that organizers would plan the protests around the band’s availability. In 2021, the U.S. Department of State invited the band to represent the country at the World Expo in Dubai.
Seeing his ability to soothe the hurt felt in the crowds led Tukes to his new calling: music therapy.
“I’m watching this very tough, painful time, and the music is providing comfort and peace for people,” Tukes said. “I literally did a Google search of how to heal people with music, and I found music therapy.”
Tukes’ job is to make elements of music functional in a non-musical context, whether it be rehabilitating use of the right arm or working through a mother’s grief through a musical medium.
Coming to the end of his coursework for his master’s degree in music therapy at Illinois State University, Tukes said music therapy has reframed the way he thinks, listens, performs and improvises.
As a therapist, Tukes must be direct and specific in his instructions and actions. Likewise, he’s come to be more thoughtful in what he chooses to play. For instance, he said he’s been more intentional about playing traditional, technical licks.
“What am I gonna make my instrument say?” Tukes said. “Since I already know how to speak, now let me use language as efficiently as I can.”
Tukes strives to push the vibraphone to its limits through unique and unconventional ways of playing. He loves the instrument for its ability to create overtones, where he can create a different sound when hitting the sweet spot between two seemingly dissonant notes.
After releasing the album “Let’s Vibe” four years ago, Tukes is now working on his next project. Inspired by his upbringing on Chicago’s south side, “Chicago Vibe” features songs named after meaningful places, streets and people.
“Chicago Vibe” is also the name of the drink Tukes created at Winter’s Jazz Club in the city, where he is a regular performer. When crafting the drink, he had two requirements: tequila and purple.
“Because of Northwestern, that’s my favorite color now,” he said.
For his upcoming performance at Studio5, Tukes is excited to perform for audience members who have followed his career since his jazz combo shows at NU.
Tukes will be playing a tribute to legendary vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, who turned 100 years old this year. Tukes was a recipient of Yamaha and the Percussive Arts Society’s Terry Gibbs Vibraphone Scholarship, offered to talented vibraphonists in Gibbs’ honor.
Studio5 presenter and Artistic Director Steve Rashid (Bienen M.M. ’83) first heard of Tukes from members of the Chicago music community who spoke highly of his musicianship. Rashid said he appreciates Tukes’ modern take on the vibraphone, which he hasn’t heard before.
“In his playing, I hear the respect for some of those early tunes. Yet, when he does his own thing, sometimes there’s an element of hip-hop,” Rashid said. “He embraces both the old and the new and pushes it forward and melds it in a really interesting way.”
Looking to the future, Tukes said he hopes to guide people in their healing journey through music.
“I’m really trying to live a life that I would want little Thaddeus to be proud of, and to be who little Thaddeus could have looked to as a role model,” Tukes said.
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