KINGSTON, R.I. – Jan. 30, 2025 – Emmett Goods’ inspiration to become a musician came with a jazz soundtrack.

“I was always around music,” says Goods, associate professor of music at the University of Rhode Island and head of its jazz studies program. “I guess the spark that went off and made me want to play, it had to be somewhere when I was a kid.”

His grandfather J.C. Moses was a renowned jazz drummer who recorded and performed with the likes of Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Dorham, Jackie McLean, and brothers Stanley and Tommy Turrentine. And while his grandfather died the year before Emmett was born, he left a deep musical legacy in the Goods household. 

“We literally just missed each other,” says Goods. “But he was a big presence in my life. My mom was still connected to all these people that were a part of his life in music.”

His mother, Regina, would take him to countless concerts to see musical legends, like jazz singer Betty Carter and saxophonist Sonny Rollins. And when his mother wasn’t available, she let it be known to an extended family of friends and relatives that, if there was an extra ticket, there was a young boy more than happy to go to the show with them. 

And there was his hometown, Pittsburgh itself, home to many jazz greats and a way station between New York and Chicago for scores more.

Goods has captured his journey, in and out of music, on his debut solo album, “Another Level,” released by Truth Revolution Records, the Grammy-nominated label run by former URI faculty member Zaccai Curtis. Seven of the nine tracks on the album were written by Emmett, and they provide a musical portrait of him through the people and places that have meant a lot to him. The album features his older brother Richie Goods, who produced the album, played bass and wrote the track “Goods Brothers.” 

“It’s an opportunity to finally get some of these things out,” Emmett says. “I feel like I’ve entered another season in my life, and it’s time to kind of mark that.”

On “Another Level,” Emmett honors his relationship with his mother with “October Tune.” In “Sweet Dreams,” he remembers his late wife, while “West Indian Queen,” celebrates his current wife. For his grandmother, there’s “Triedstone,” named for the little church “she drug us to whether we wanted to go to or not. It ends up meaning a lot in my life. I think about that place often.” 

The album opens with “Bennet Street Blues,” recalling the community in which he grew up, the street where he was born, his great-grandmother’s house, and his high school– Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts–where he learned under legendary drummer Roger Humphries, before trading in the drumsticks for the trombone.

“I was not his greatest drum student,” says Goods. “And so I switched to trombone and the rest is history.” 

“Another Level,” marks Goods’ debut as a band leader, which he likens to having a baby–from finding the right publicist and booking agent to touring to support the project. Also lining up the musicians to record the album was a minefield. “Man, so many things happen between making plans to actually getting to the recording studio,” he says. “When I lived in Atlanta, I can’t tell you how many times I was called in at the last minute to make a record.”

Along with the Goods brothers, the band includes three URI music faculty members – Haneef Nelson (trumpet/flugelhorn), who wrote “Blues for the Enslaved,” Andrew Wilcox (piano), and Atla DeChamplain (voice). Rounding out the lineup are Nathan Edwards (tenor saxophone), Mark Whitfield Jr. (drums), and Shedrick Mitchell (organ). The album was recorded in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, engineered by URI’s Ethan Hicks.

Since its release, the album  has received good reviews and gotten a lot of airtime on radio, especially SiriusXM’s “Real Jazz.” “It means a lot that they’ve been willing to play it on ‘Real Jazz,’” he says.

For Goods, who also serves as director of URI’s Big Band, his work away from the classroom – performing and recording – provides an important lesson to students of what it takes to be a working musician.

“I’m just not up here preaching to you,” says Goods, who also co-leads the Latin Jazz Project, which is working on its first album. “I’m telling you what I know for a fact, what I’ve had to deal with. It’s how I was brought up in music. Some of my mentors, Jackie McLean, Steve Davis, Nathan Davis, were all practitioners. All these wonderful people not only played the music, but they also went out and performed the music.”

At the same time, Goods has been fine-tuning URI’s jazz studies program, adding courses in jazz arrangement, piano, and a theory and improvisation class that will be offered earlier in students’ careers. The goal is to ensure students have the tools to deal with a shifting music landscape, which includes a growing importance in social media. “All these things are helpful and are going to really help us develop better jazz musicians–more competitive and more engaged,” he says. “I’m hoping to give students a more 21st century jazz studies experience.”