Jordan High School graduate Adia Ledbetter (class of 1996) remembers having to meet high expectations while she was a student striving for graduation. In addition to her academic disciplines, she was a singer whose high school music teachers saw something in her that she didn’t really know she had. Self-described as “very shy,” she is now a noted singer who has shared her gift of song at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and most recently in 2024 at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, New York. Durham Public Schools is also privileged that she also shares her music knowledge with the students at Shepard IB Middle Magnet School.
While a student at Jordan, Ledbetter said her auditions included choreographed moves where singing and dancing were paramount, she notes.
“That was so much fun,” she says with a chuckle.
Ledbetter, who also attended Pearsontown and Githens, participated in high-level performances that she says were Broadway-esque because of the high-quality training and the outcomes they produced, she recounts. She rose to meet her teachers’ challenges, including her first time singing a solo which she describes as “horrible”. Nonetheless, she persisted, and she later asked her teacher if she could audition and perform a female solo lead.
“I went to the microphone and it came out right. Success!” she said. “I just remember I couldn’t stop smiling after it. And my brother was in the audience yelling ‘Encore!’ Embarrassing,” she says with a smile.
“They pushed you beyond what you ever thought you could do,” she says of her Jordan teachers. “They built my confidence in who I am. And if they were there to push me beyond what I thought I could do. They saw something in me and said okay, she can do this. She’s the one to do that. And not just one time. More than once.”
Being around her teacher Scott Hill in that space gave her the confidence to sing and perform, she said.
“I have a confidence about that. I know I can do that. If I don't know I can do anything else, I know I can do that. Not only that, they inspired me to be a teacher. I definitely would not be a teacher if I had not had those teachers. I can say that positively. If those women were not in my life, I probably would not be a teacher.
Ledbetter’s familiarity with music and performance didn’t begin at school, however. Her father, Dr. Freeman Ledbetter Jr., was an architect who designed solar conservation homes, as well as a musician who has performed with other jazz greats like Mary Lou Williams and Nneena Freelon. Her mother worked as an educator for IBM and Toshiba, teaching others how to use the company’s technology.
Although she readily acknowledges that she comes from a long line of excellent teachers and musicians, she says her own classroom teachers drove her toward the teaching profession.
In high school, she sang with the Jordan Sound choir during her sophomore year; Falcon Song, the traveling choir that took her to Russia and New York during her junior year; and the Spotlight choir.
Not only is she back with Durham Public Schools as a teacher at Shepard IB Magnet Middle School, but she has returned with a wealth of experience as a songstress with two albums who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ledbetter graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies with a Vocal Concentration, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education. She also earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise and Sports Science with a concentration in Exercise Leadership, and a minor in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned a Master of Arts in Jazz Vocal performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. In addition to teaching for DPS, Ledbetter serves as an adjunct professor at Durham Technical Community College and an Applied Vocal Instructor at North Carolina Central.
Given her talent and the priority she places on music and music education, Ledbetter is very thoughtful about teaching students the rudiments of music and song. After all, her high school instructors modeled excellent teaching well, she said.
“I think what made them so memorable is that they pushed you beyond what you ever thought you could do. They built my confidence and who I am…They saw something in me that said, ‘Okay, she can do this. She's the one to do that.’ And not just one time, more than once,” she said. Receiving further validation and support from her own school teachers pushed her toward the profession.
“If those women were not in my life, I probably would not be a teacher. I come from some amazing teachers but I still don't know if I would be here.
Her musical talent was honed at home and at school.
Ledbetter’s father was a jazz bass player. She was privileged to travel with him and Yusuf Salim, both Durham musicians. She watched Nnenna Freelon and Eve Cornelious rehearse in her basement.
I watched these singers rehearse and I wanted to sing,” she said.
She remembers being picked up from school and accompanying her father to his gigs at long-gone locales. She and her brother wanted to go home but would sit at a table and sip glass bottle Black Cherry sodas while her dad performed.
“Eventually, I got tired of watching,” she said. And she began to sing.
She said she would walk around the house singing songs like Janet Jackson’s ‘Control’. Her dad challenged her saying, “That’s not music.”
Eve Cornelius asked her if she wanted to be a singer and who she listened to. Cornelius grunted when Ledbetter rattled off names, and told her she needed to listen to Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Betty Carter. When Ledbetter did listen, she said it sounded interesting, and her appreciation grew over time. And then one of her favorite singers, Natalie Cole, produced Unforgettable. “I always felt this strong connection to Natalie Cole and to her voice. So when she went toward jazz, I went with her,” said Ledbetter.
When she began to listen to Fitzgerald and other jazz singers, something clicked. She came to understand what Eve Cornelious was trying to say. Yusuf Salim was willing to work with her. Her Dad pushed her along. She started to play gigs with them, learned how to perform swing jazz music, and even learned Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. She was also a dancer with Collage Dance Company.
After singing that song, she took classical voice and jazz music lessons from a singer named Dr. Martha Flowers, who was a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and who traveled with Porgy and Bess. She also taught her how to take care of her voice.
She matriculated to UNC-Greensboro to study exercise and sports science with a concentration in exercise leadership and a minor in dance and nutrition. She worked in the field at Glaxo Smith-Kline as a Health Fitness Specialist, and continued to perform, sing, and take her lessons with Dr. Flowers. She also performed at the local Durham restaurant, Jamaica Jamaica, for jam sessions.
She then attended NC Central University to study music education and jazz studies, gaining exposure to additional musical talent such as Dr. Lenora Helm-Hammonds, who Ledbetter said could sing opera and jazz. She earned her Master’s in Jazz Vocal Performance and studied at the Aaron Copeland School of Music at Queens College in New York with J.D. Walter, Antonio Hart, Michael Mossman, and Melba Joyce.
“I’ll never forget that she (Helm-Hammonds) came and did a workshop. She sang Summertime like an opera singer, then she sang it like a jazz singer. But the fact that her voice did both things perfectly was amazing,” said Ledbetter. “From there, meeting her, I developed a mentor for life. And that is how I ended up at Carnegie Hall.”
Dr. Helm-Hammons, a composer and arranger, motivated and inspired Ledbetter. Helm-Hammonds had a Carnegie Hall performance scheduled for another singer who unexpectedly wasn’t able to perform a solo. When Helm-Hammonds asked her to stand in, she couldn’t say no. She had two weeks to prepare.
Ledbetter sang a vocalese to John Coltrane’s Dear Lord horn solo written by Helm-Hammonds, called Conversations with God arranged by Maurice Myers, Assistant Professor and Director of Vocal Jazz at North Carolina Central University. Dr. Helms-Hammonds was a conductor for the performance.
Ledbetter sang with an NCCU choir. There were other choirs there for the experience as well, but who chose not to sing jazz so they walked off of the stage before the jazz portion.
“For her, Lenora, this was a triumph in that jazz was not usually done on the stage as a part of that series. So we’re still fighting that battle, the validation of jazz, as America’s classical music. It is the only true musical art form that was created in the United States, and it’s still fighting for respect…The best way for me to put it is that people are uninformed.”
Ledbetter says jazz has roots that touch all genres.
“If you can sing jazz, you can sing anything. There is no harmonic or melodic function that jazz doesn’t touch. Learning that and learning proper vocal technique means that you can sing anything you want to sing. I can sing whatever you throw at me. I can sing classical music, jazz, I can sing the blues, I can sing country music, pop. That all goes back to my confidence.”
She says jazz is a complex music genre that’s challenging to bring to life because one must have the ability to tap into raw emotions. This music reaches beyond the surface of one's being and into the center of your soul if you let it. Sidney Bechet once said, "You got to be in the sun to feel the sun."
Through Hammonds’ tutelage and expertise in vocal technique and studying with others she allowed her to study with, she believes in her ability to sing any genre. She also studied under Dr. Ira Wiggins and can arrange and write her own charts. She said graduate school was a breeze due to her training at NCCU. She can write her own music for her middle school students if she chooses.
When it comes to singing, “If I don’t know how to do anything else, I know I can do that.”
Ledbetter was offered five jobs at once after substituting teaching forChapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, and chose to return to DPS. She’s taught at Shepard Middle School for 11 years. She’s also taught at W.G. Pearson when it was sixth grade only before going to graduate school.
Ledbetter’s work extends beyond the classroom.
She has recorded two albums, one of which was produced as a demo called First Take with her father and Salim but later released as an album. The second album, entitled Rendezvous with Yesterdays, featuring her father and Ed Paolantonio, a professor at NCCU. The song, Beautiful Love, from that album can be heard here. She hopes to begin working on a third album soon. She also sings with a group called The Black Angels, created out of COVID, at St. Joseph’s Church every third Sunday.
“Churches were going live on Zoom and nobody except the ministers, the musicians, the technology team, and us were in the building. We created a vocal synergy that remained intact even though everybody had started returning to the building,” she said.
She was interviewed for a documentary titled Moonchild: The Life and Music of Yusuf Salim by Kenny Dalsheimer. The documentary coincided with a concert sponsored by Duke Arts featuring the music of Yusuf Salim. She sang the song Moonchild written by Salim and These Foolish Things with original lyrics that paid a tribute to Salim. The concert also featured performances by Nnenna Freelon, Eve Cornelious, Lois Deloatch, Frankie Alexander, and a NCCU All-Star band created for this occasion featuring Robert Trowers and NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz.
Ledbetter was also listed in Downbeat magazine in 2006/2007 as a vocalist to watch, and has sung at Kennedy Center as part of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program
“Once you allow this music to penetrate your soul, you will never let it go. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to penetrate souls and take you on a journey,” she said.
Her artistic journey continues to grow. Ledbetter is now creating clothing and household items featuring paintings and patterns she has designed. Her artwork has been featured in the 2023 and 2024 DPS Art Educators’ Show at the Durham Arts Council. She also serves on the Arts and Letters Committee for the Durham Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.
Ledbetter said she can’t underestimate the impact her DPS teachers had on her, including how they treated her. She’s taken their lessons to heart. For example, she will recommend her students to do things she believes they can do, because believing in your students, she says, is part of being a good educator. Above all, she adds, being nice is just as important as being good at what you do.
“It pays to be nice to people. They will remember,” she said.
Just as she has.
