John D’earth, the ‘Robin Hood of Jazz,’ Retires

By the time he was 2 years old, John D’earth says he was ruined.

His father, an amateur drummer, put a young D’earth in front of a small drum with some drum brushes and taught him to play. D’earth recalled another adult remarking on how young he was to be playing an instrument, despite his clumsiness.

He was hooked on music.

“I was sunk. I mean, I was ruined for life,” said D’earth, who retired at the end of 2024 after more than 40 years as the director of jazz performance at the University of Virginia.

During his career, D’earth taught thousands of students, many of whom became professional jazz musicians and have recorded music with D’earth. He has worked with musicians like Miles Davis and Charlottesville’s own Dave Matthews Band, which was inspired by D’earth’s band Cosmology. For decades, he’s held a performance residency at Miller’s on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. 

His trajectory has been unlikely: He was hired at UVA without a college degree, though he had been making money in the music business since he was a teenager.

D’earth’s childhood home in Framingham, Massachusetts, was filled with music – his father played records “24/7, obsessively.” Usually, the family’s soundtrack was jazz, but Saturday afternoons were reserved for opera. Though D’earth described having to listen to opera for hours over the weekend as a “drag,” both genres of music taught him to listen actively and helped him develop an ear for music.

D’earth first picked up a trumpet at age 10. He went to see a screening of “The Five Pennies,” a movie about jazz cornet player Loring “Red” Nichols and featuring Louis Armstrong. D’earth was taken with Armstrong, so his mother bought him a $15 trumpet. He found a low C note on the instrument and discovered a scale from there.

“The horn loved me, and I loved the horn, and that was that,” D’earth said.

He considers that his first performance. It was purely for himself. He would get his first audience several years later, when he was in junior high riding the band bus to a football game. He got out his trumpet and began playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

His Spanish teacher approached him to compliment his playing. Growing up, D’earth rarely received praise from adults, so the gesture meant a lot to the young musician.

“I wasn’t used to that at all. … It was huge,” D’earth said.

Shortly after, D’earth began playing paid gigs after telling his music teachers he wanted to play in a band.

“My teacher called me and said they needed a second trumpet in this dance band. I would have to join the union and get a tuxedo,” D’earth said. 

His mother got behind it, and D’earth earned $50 for four hours of work. He knew he couldn’t go back to his odd jobs as a landscaper and snow shoveler. Though he was always the youngest member of the bands he played in, he didn’t feel lonely or insecure. Instead, he felt “privileged and honored, always.” Since then, his livelihood has been in music, as a teacher and a performer. 

“I want to have a concept of right livelihood,” D’earth said. “I want to do what I love and make sure it pays the bills. I love teaching, and I loved seeing people recognize their own abilities.”

He spent a few semesters at Harvard University before dropping out. D’earth, along with drummer Robert Jospe and singer Dawn Thompson, whom D’earth later married, formed the band Cosmology and moved to New York. Thompson (who died in 2017) was from Charlottesville, and she and D’earth came down from New York in the summer of 1981.

D’earth improvises a trumpet riff. For D’earth, improvisation is at the heart of all human interaction, whether it’s musical or conversational. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“I thought, ‘Oh, God, I'm going to end up living here.’ And I wasn't thinking I would want to do that,” D’earth said.

He would come to love it. When he and Cosmology moved here, D’earth taught music at five schools in the area, including UVA, James Madison University and St. Anne’s-Belfield School. In the mid-’80s, the jazz ensemble at UVA approached D’earth. At that point, the organization was student-run.

“They had money, so they hired me to help them. You know, I helped them with one concert, and they asked me to stay and help them,” D’earth said.

Later, music department chair Marita McClymonds made the jazz ensemble part of the curriculum and hired D’earth as the director of jazz performance, despite the fact he didn’t have a college degree.

“My life is not something somebody else should follow, because I don’t think it’s repeatable,” D’earth said.

Regardless of whether he’s a role model, his students (like Will Evans and Teri Allard) have gone on to be successful working musicians. D’earth said they aren’t exceptions.

“My advanced students are better than me,” D’earth said. “They’re so good, it’s astonishing.”

D’earth described himself as a “Robin Hood of jazz.”