When jazz voice instructor Julia Dollison performed at a jazz conference seven years ago, she did not know her future husband, jazz program director Kerry Marsh, was one of the fans sitting in the audience who she would soon marry and produce an album with.

The album Dollison and Marsh recently released is called “Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider.” Schneider is a musician and close friend of Dollison who originally invited her to play at that jazz conference seven years ago.

These professors took Schneider’s original music scores and created an orchestra with the two of their voices.

The couple decided to create their music from Schneider’s scores because they were fascinated with her genre of work.

“(Schneider) writes in a modern, progressive jazz style that is more textural in nature,” Marsh said.

Dollison said starting the album was not easy because not many people thought multi-tracking their voices over musical instruments could be done.

“We pitched an idea of creating this album to Maria and she thought we were out of our minds because it would be too difficult to put together,” Dollison said. “We said we were up to the challenge, and she later ended up endorsing us.”

Dollison said the most complex part of recording the album was recording their voices to replace the instrumental parts from the scores.

The album took a little more than a year to complete.

People who purchase an album can navigate into “ArtistShare,” a place that documents the process of Dollison and Marsh’s album.

“ArtistShare is a fan-based site that allows people to view video clips, recording, rehearsing, audio recording and all the other features that went with constructing the album,” Dollison said.

Marsh said their album involved a large amount of effort to put together but said sharing it was the reward.

“I think “Vertical Voices’ is important in vocal jazz because we’re singing actual jazz orchestra from the score as it was written for this entirely different orchestration wordlessly with no lyrics – so it’s abstract,” Marsh said. “Is is also important to us because it’s our debut together as a team.”

The album is mainly available for purchase online.

“The album is not in stores yet, so we’re doing self-promotion through the Internet by utilizing Facebook, individual websites, e-mail marketing and performing live,” Dollison said.

Casey Lipka, senior music major, said she has taken classes with both professors and congratulates them for developing the album.

“I am inspired by what they’re doing with the project by multi-tracking two people or implementing the voices of two people and creating a big band orchestra,” Lipka said.

Dollison said she had not been exposed to jazz until college, when she studied as a vocal jazz major.

“I fell in love with singing in jazz because it allows you to use your voice in a flexible way,” she said. In contrast to classical music, “it’s more structured and focused, while jazz gives me the option to be myself.” Melissa Fulkerson, senior jazz studies major, said Dollison has made her a better jazz singer.

“Julia takes the time to analyze our voices and suggest to us ways to improve our singing,” Fulkerson said. “She knows our voices better than we do.”

Marsh said he has contributed to the Sac State jazz department by helping jazz students put together many albums and winning prominent awards in jazz.

During his time at Sac State, he said he recorded four student ensemble albums and earned five awards from Downbeat Magazine.

Marsh said after taking over the vocal jazz program, he wanted to work toward building up the program.

“I wanted to make Sac State one of the places that was on the map as a hub – a special place for vocal jazz to go,” he said.

Marsh said class cuts in the jazz studies program have been one of the ongoing issues the jazz department has faced.

“Our school has unfortunately gone from a place where we’re actively seeking out new students and now turning away students,” he said.

Because of these obstacles, Marsh planned to leave Sac State and get a Ph.D, but decided to stay at Sac State with his wife.

Dollison said one of the main reasons she decided to stay was to ensure that every one of her students finished their senior voice recitals.

“We’ve got at least one more student who we would be short of just finishing their voice recital,” she said. “Just that one student is enough for us to stay and get them through it.”

Dollison said their departure would no longer allow them to meet and hear comments from their fans in Sacramento.

John Saelee can be reached at [email protected]