Trenton rivals Nashville when it comes to music history (you heard that right)

EWING -- Not many people know about Trenton's rich musical heritage, but the city's churches, clubs and venues nurtured dozens of young musicians and started many careers.

The city has produced nationally recognized musicians like LaBelle's Sarah Dash, who later toured and recorded with the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards; Kool and the Gang trombonist Clifford Adams; and bassist and music producer Adam Blackstone, who has worked with some of today's biggest artists including Rihanna and Justin Timberlake.

Trenton's location, midway between New York and Philadelphia, also allowed it to attract big-name musicians in the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s.

But before decades of history is lost forever, two College of New Jersey professors and their students are working to preserve the stories and sounds that came out of the capital city -- from the Revolutionary War until now.

"I want Trenton to be recognized as much of a music city as Nashville because it is," said Kim Pearson, a journalism and interactive multimedia professor. "Given the small size of the city, given the population of fewer than 100,000 people, you look at the amount of talent across genres that came out of Trenton and people were influential."

Trenton Makes Music is a project that has been years in the making.

Pearson and her co-director, music and interactive multimedia professor Teresa Marrin Nakra, had collaborated before and were looking for a project that would combine journalism, music and technology.

"We started brainstorming about creating this digital archive that documented Trenton's music history and an interactive map and eventually getting to the point ... where you could look at the kinds of music that came out of Trenton and see whether or not there was something called 'the Trenton sound,'" Pearson said. "But in order to get there, you had to have the archive."

In the fall of 2014 and 2015, her students began conducting oral history interviews with artists and educators and slowly, the digital archive, interactive map and podcast series began to take shape.

"As we talk to people, we line up more people," Pearson said. "I think you could mine this for a while."

She recalls one night on her commute home, she was talking with the bus driver about the project when he told her to talk to his sister. It turns out his sister, Diane Jones, sang backup for Taylor Dayne and Guns N' Roses and toured with Michael Jackson for part of his Bad tour.

"So I call Diane Jones and she comes in and tells us these amazing stories," Pearson said.

Early on, the project got a big boost of star power from Dash, who has worked with students and serves as the host and co-producer of the podcast series.

She says it's made her realize how proud she is to call Trenton home.

"We're given images by people who don't live here or don't understand the heartbeat of the city," said Dash, during a break from recording the project's theme song. "When I thought about it, I'm from this town and I think I'm OK, something good came from me on an international level.

"I think not only the residents of Trenton, but the world should know that regardless of the violence, there is something good that we can do by providing a history for people to be proud of," she continued.

And Pearson says that the city's music scene is still thriving, pointing to the Candlelight Lounge, the last club that still regularly features jazz musicians, and the artists recording in Exit 7A's studios on West Front Street as examples.

"There's a lot of folks who are still here and playing," Pearson said. "If it were better known, it'd be better supported and there will be more of it because the talent is here."

Her and Nakra have high hopes for the project's success -- both that it would reach a wide, diverse audience and that it can tie into the city's economic development efforts.

"My top goal is that we find a way to tell the important cultural stories out of Trenton and use them as a way to elevate conversation about the city and to serve as an important economic driver for development in the city," Nakra said. "And I hope that we do get there because I do believe that the performing arts are a major attraction for the city and when I hear about negative stories coming out of Trenton, it saddens me because the cultural legacy is so strong and vibrant."

Jillian Festa, a junior in Nakra's podcasting course, said the class is teaching her not only about the mechanics of making a podcast, but also about the city.

"I knew very little which is interesting because we live so close to Trenton, but we're kind of a bubble on this campus," said Festa, whose group is working on a podcast about music education and public policy.

Trenton Makes Music, which is funded in part by grants from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the College Music Society, can be found online at trentonmakesmusic.org.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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