The scholarship was presented to Fasig during the introduction of The Gennett Suite which celebrates the 100-year anniversary of Gennett Records.
He says he was inspired by Hoagy Carmichael who recorded early works at Gennett Records. Gennett Records was a turn-of-the-20th-century recording studio in Richmond, Ind., about 70 miles east of Indianapolis. The Gennett Suite was composed by the David Baker Prof. of Jazz Studies, Brent Wallarab, and performed by the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra.
Fasig is a tenor saxophone artist and composer. He grew up in Loveland and Defiance, Ohio. Loveland is near Cincinnati.
The Hoagy Carmichael Award for Excellence in Jazz Composition is granted to a music student based on faculty review of student compositions. The award includes $3,000, a plaque and a copy of Richard Sudhalter’s biography of Hoagy Carmichael.
One of Carmichael’s earliest and greatest songs, Stardust, has been recorded more than 1,500 times … and counting. Stardust was first recorded by Carmichael at Gennett Records in 1927. Another Carmichael jazz standard, Up A Lazy River, is considered by many to be the standard for jazz musicians. Ironically, Carmichael graduated from the IU School of Law, now the Maurer School of Law, and not the IU School of Music. He once told a family member, “There’s more money in law.” He practiced law for a brief time in Florida but returned to Indiana to become a musician.
2023 recipient Fasig says Hoagy “was the baddest” and that’s a good thing.
“This is such an honor to be included in the Hoagy Carmichael award,” said Fasig. “Hoagy was one of the best Tin Pan Alley writers, ever, if not the best. And as a performer, he was the baddest.” Fasig said if your legacy can survive that many years it’s special. He pointed to the Carmichael top hits: “You’ve got Stardust, Skylark, The Nearness of You, Georgia On My Mind – these are songs that will forever be stamped as classic jazz songs…forever!” He said jazz musicians in the year 2100 are “still going to have to learn The Nearness of You.
“I could never imagine anyone learning and knowing my songs 200 years after I pass away. The approach he took to ballads will carry on forever. He’s going to be a canonical name, just like Beethoven or Bach.”
Garrett developed from a musical family: He first learned about saxophones from a cousin.
Garrett remembers his mother’s sister was an accomplished reed player. He also remembers as an elementary school kid, seeing his cousin, a classically trained saxophonist, play in a musical, “I knew then I wanted to play saxophone. I got into playing recorder at Loveland, Ohio, Middle school.” By seventh and eighth grade he was playing tenor sax in the school stage band with music teacher Bruce Maegly. In the eighth grade, the band went on the “Purple Potamus” tour to elementary schools and their favorite song was “Purple Hippopotamus” which was “fun, funky and cheesy,” he remembers.
The road to Indiana University Jacobs School of Music:
Garrett headed for the world renown IU Jacobs School of Music expecting to study tenor saxophone with Walter Smith III. “But as I was finishing my sophomore year, Walter left and I almost left, too. But then Greg Ward came and I studied with him for the last four years. Greg and Brent Wallarab have formed me as the musician, composer and saxophone player I am.”
Hoagy Award at the IU Jacobs School of Music:
“Offering a jazz composition award in Hoagy Carmichael’s name is a natural for the Jacobs School of Music at Hoagy’s alma mater, Indiana University,” said Wallarab. “Hoagy distinguished himself among the top echelon of jazz composers of all time.“Garrett is a more than worthy recipient given his already extensive portfolio of original jazz compositions, many of which have been recorded and performed,” Wallarab said.
Wallarab said as a young composer Fasig has been prolific. In his short career, he has written several original jazz ensemble compositions recorded by the Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble, a full program of music for jazz sextet and string quartet and has been commissioned for jazz ensemble and orchestral works by the New York Youth Symphony and Brianna Thomas. In 2021 he was awarded the David N. Baker Jazz Composition Scholarship from BMI.
