Tom the Jazzman
This article describes Tom Mallison's donation of a portion of his record collection to the Mendenhall Student Center. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Tom the Jazzman," ECU Report, Volume 20, No. 1, Fall 1988.
The jazz section of the Music Listening Center at Mendenhall Student Center will get a needed boost this fall from Tom Mallison '66, better known by jazz aficionados as Tom the Jazzman, host of a weekly jazz program on WTEB Radio in New Bern.In an effort to promote the art form, Mallison will donate "hundreds" of cassettes from his personal collection to the center.
"Students generally don't have as much income as other people," Mallison says. "For those who would like to know a little more about jazz, this is a way for them to listen and grow and appreciate it without making a financial investment."
The donation will include music by such artists as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Diane Shuur, Eddie Daniels, Kevin Eubanks and David Benoit. "A lot of them can be classified as new age, which is the more mellow electronic-type music that is very popular with the students," Mallison says. "I'm also giving some cassettes by Japanese artists and a few live concert performances."
Although space is at a premium in Mallison's Greenville home due to his massive collection of albums, cassettes and compact disks, the donation will consist only of duplicates. The Greenville native gets several packages weekly from promotion-hungry recording companies eager for him to play their latest releases on the air.Extras are usually given to listeners who call in during his show.
"If I just wanted to get rid of some of these records, I could do many more lucrative things with them," Mallison says. "Many people sell duplicates to a second-hand record shop in Raleigh for $1 which re-sells them for $4.People who are willing to buy complete collections advertise in magazines all the time. It's a big business, just like baseball cards and comic books."
According to Rudolph S. Alexander, director of University Unions, Mallison's gift is as unique as it is welcome. "We have had some albums given to us by the campus radio station in the past, but nothing to compare with this," he says. "A portion of the Mendenhall Student Center programming budget is allocated for the purchase of tapes and to keep up the equipment, but that portion is very small, so gifts such as this one mean a lot."
The listening center has been in existence since 1973 when Mendenhall first opened its doors.Three years ago improvements were made with a gift from the senior class and the Department of University Unions.
"Persons who are interested in enjoying music check out headsets from the control center," Alexander says. "They can either request the type of music they're interested in, listen to a channel that is already in use, or bring their own music to play. We provide a good service, and it's getting good usage."
All types of music are made available to students at the listening center, including country, classical and rock. "This gift will certainly enhance the capabilities of the center to better serve the students, particularly those who are jazz enthusiasts," Alexander says. "Up until now jazz was the weakest area. With this gift, our jazz collection will probably become our strongest musical offering."
Mallison views the gift as a test -- if the recordings prove popular, he says he'll consider adding to the collection."My prime motivation has always been to advance the art form of jazz," he says. "If the cassettes aren't being used, I'd rather give them out to callers who like that kind of music.Or they might be better utilized if they were given to the music school."
Mallison has been satisfying jazz junkies with a healthy fix of the latest tidbits, releases and classics since 1974, when he first offered his assistance to the staff at WRQR in Farmville. "They started a jazz program, but the young lady who was hosting it didn't know anything about jazz," Mallison says. "I called them up and asked if they'd like some help. They were very receptive -- they just turned me loose in there."
His first contribution was to separate the jazz albums from the rest of the recordings and group them by categories."They didn't know what was and wasn't jazz," he says.
The girl who started the program continued on as host, while Mallison programmed the music. "People began to call and ask questions about the music she was playing, and she didn't have the answers," Mallison says. "It evolved into her doing the playing with me talking.
"She was as good-looking as she sounded, and she got an offer in TV.When she left, the program had a tremendous following so they told me I had to stay."
Mallison's following remained faithful during a move several years later to WITN Radio in Washington.Three years ago he went with WTEB, whose 100,000 watts allows listeners from Apex to Atlantic Beach to tune in.
His reputation, however, spans much further than Eastern North Carolina. He's befriended many artists and provides critiques of new releases for five publications which are used to determine their priority on the jazz charts.
"My daughter and I went to New York for five days in June," Mallison says. "We went to two or three concerts every day and never bought a ticket."
Mallison first became exposed to jazz while learning to play the saxophone at Wahl-Coates and Rose High in Greenville. Although he neglected his horn after high school, Mallison's interest grew from listening to jazz programs on the radio. "I'm a radioholic," he says. "I listened to WCFL out of Chicago every night and always slept with the radio on."
Reading also contributes to his vast knowledge of the subject -- magazines, literature, anything he can get his hands on. "It's like my profession, if you're going to be a ball player you have to have certain skills. If you're going to be a jazzman you have to have certain skills," Mallison says. "You've got to have a data base so you can talk about it, and what you do is keep adding to it."
Mallison views the five hours he spends on the air every Sunday night as a challenge to educate his listeners. "I'm not out on a personal crusade to convert the world to jazz," he says. "What I'm trying to do is take everybody where they are and move them up one step at a time.If jazz to you is Chuck Mangione, I try to move you up to somebody else, ultimately up to some real jazz people."
Surprisingly, jazz is only a hobby for Mallison, who works full time at the Du Pont plant in Kinston as a staff assistant in administrative and external affairs. "I represent Du Pont to the outside world by doing presentations, handling the media, and dealing with contributions," he says.
He's been just as successful in his 21 years at Du Pont as he has in promoting jazz.Last summer he was awarded a brass apple and a plaque from the Lenoir County Board of Education and the Lenoir County Science Teachers Association in appreciation of his efforts on behalf of science teachers.
Mallison oversees a program at Du Pont which sponsors trips for area science teachers to state, regional and national science conventions.
"Just like my concept of jazz, we try to raise the teachers' data base one level," he says."Hopefully their classes will be more interesting so the students will get turned on and enjoy science."
Mallison has also won the respect of peers at ECU by serving on the Science/Mathematics Education Center Advisory Committee.As a result of that involvement, Mallison arranged for Du Pont to underwrite a workshop for science teachers at ECU in August."We brought in a textbook author who lectured and conducted workshops so area teachers could get renewal credit in something that is interesting," he says.
In addition, he's just been appointed to a three-year term on the Performing Arts Series Committee, which is responsible for selecting, promoting and presenting major entertainment events at ECU.
"I presented his name to the committee because I felt his vast knowledge of music, particulary in jazz, would prove beneficial," says Rudolph S. Alexander, director of University Unions. "Even of greater importance is his ability to acquaint the public with what we're doing through his radio program. He can help a great deal in our marketing and promotional activities."
The Student Government Association (SGA) -- not jazz -- was Mallison's primary interest while a student at East Carolina.The history major served as a senator during his freshman and sophomore years, and was elected president during his junior year. "To my knowledge, I'm the only junior who's been SGA president," he says.
While holding that office, Mallison served on a committee that designed the official seal which still appears on class rings. "We wanted to established some tradition," he says.
