By Deborah BaileyAFRO Contributing Editor
By day, Christie Dashiell is an adjunct professor of music on the College of the District of Columbia. She is the tender, but robust professor of jazz research who insists on having her college students pay attention and be taught method. At night time and on the weekends, nonetheless, the professor is working phases throughout America, selling her most up-to-date venture “Journey In Black,” the recording that captured the eye of the Nationwide Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (often known as the Recording Academy).
Dashiell’s soulful jazz vocals, fused with gospel and a contact of rhythm and blues, turned heads and received the Prince George’s County resident nominated for a Grammy Award within the Greatest Jazz Vocal Album class.
As Dashiell sends the final pupil out the doorways of the Arts and Sciences constructing at UDC’s northwest Washington, D.C. campus, she and colleagues mirror on the Grammy nomination, the street forward, and the lifetime of music.
“It feels wonderful to lastly come into this recognition for the sounds and music I’ve heard throughout me and carried inside me all through my life,” stated Dashiell about her musical type.
Dashiell hails from a musical household, together with not solely her dad and mom, brothers and sisters, but in addition aunts, uncles, cousins and everybody in her massive prolonged household.
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Her father, Carroll Dashiell, at the moment serves as chair of Howard College’s Division of Music and is a famous jazz bassist and composer.
Dashiell’s brother Carroll “C.V.” Dashiell III, is likely one of the band members that may share the Grammy nomination with Christie. A number of of the band’s members are Howard College graduates, as are Christie and C.V. Dashiell. You’ll be able to hear the symmetry within the music.
“Christie has at all times been within the shadow of different vocalists for thus lengthy,” stated C.V. Dashiell about his sister’s Grammy nomination. “It’s nice to see her now be acknowledged by the business for her contribution to music.”
Her UDC household is pleased with Dashiell’s accomplishments as effectively. Professor Johnny H. Butler, director of choral actions, is witness to the outcomes of the time and a spotlight Dashiell offers her college students.
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“A few of our college students come to us with an thought of what jazz is and others have by no means heard of it. Professor Dashiell introduces them to the connection between jazz and different artwork kinds college students extra simply acknowledge, like R&B or gospel,” Butler stated.
The choral director additional stated that Dashiell provides a particular particular contact to the instruction she offers to college students who need to pursue jazz research. “All of our music college students come to us with uncooked expertise. The distinctive bonus Christie gives to a music division like ours is enabling college students to see the actual lifetime of a working musician. She works with every pupil, giving them the technical abilities and vocal capability to honor the wealthy musical custom of jazz,” he continued.
This Feb. 2, Dashiell, her whole band and members of the Dashiell household will honor the custom of jazz that has at all times been a part of the DMV space and their household roots as they journey to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Dashiell’s nomination has been a household affair since November, when she was first nominated for the 2025 Grammy Awards. She’s going to proceed the celebration not just for herself, however for all who introduced her up to now in her musical journey.
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“I wouldn’t be stunned if my father received on stage with me if I ought to win,” Dashiell stated, laughing as she mirrored on the street she has traveled from rising up in North Carolina, returning to Prince George’s County and faculty within the DMV space to visiting the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles for the 2025 Grammy Awards.
