Texas Poets Meet Texas Jazz
at Texas Music Museum
Double Vision Jazz Ensemble joins poets Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega for a free interdisciplinary performance combining original poetry, contemporary jazz, rhythmic interpretation, and live improvisation.
Co-leaders and composers Hank Hehmsoth and John Mills will create new music inspired by selected poems, allowing poetry and jazz to shape one another in performance.
Poster for Texas Poets Meet Texas Jazz, featuring Double Vision Jazz Ensemble with poets Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega at Texas Music Museum in Austin.
Where poetry and jazz meet in live performance
Texas Poets Meet Texas Jazz brings together Double Vision Jazz Ensemble with poets Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega for a free interdisciplinary performance at the Texas Music Museum.
For this concert, Double Vision co-leaders Hank Hehmsoth and John Mills will create original music and new arrangements inspired by selected poems.
The program connects spoken word, contemporary jazz, composition, rhythmic interpretation, and live improvisation, allowing poetry and music to shape one another in performance.
The event features poets Jacqueline Miller and San Antonio Poet Laureate Eddie Vega with Double Vision musicians Hank Hehmsoth, John Mills, Utah Hamrick, and guest drummer Rob Kazanel.
Co-leaders and composers Hank Hehmsoth and John Mills shape the musical framework for the poetry-and-jazz collaboration.
Original work, public access, and Texas cultural storytelling
This program expands HPPAA’s AACME Elevate-supported Double Vision series by developing and presenting new collaborative work between Austin jazz artists and Texas poets.
The project supports artist fees, original music creation, public performance, and cross-community audience development.
By bringing together Double Vision Jazz Ensemble with Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega, the event creates a meeting point between poetry, jazz composition, spoken word, improvisation, and Texas cultural storytelling.
The evening is designed not merely as a concert, but as a live creative encounter in which poems become musical material and music responds in turn to language, rhythm, imagery, and individual voice.
Presented free to the public at the Texas Music Museum, the event continues HPPAA’s 2026 Elevate series focus on original work, artist collaboration, public access, and high-quality documentation of Austin-based cultural programming.
Double Vision’s interdisciplinary approach makes room for composition, interpretation, improvisation, listening, and exchange.
A contemporary jazz ensemble rooted in long-term collaboration
Double Vision Jazz Ensemble is a contemporary jazz ensemble co-led by composers and improvisers Hank Hehmsoth on piano and John Mills on saxophone and flute.
Rooted in a musical relationship stretching back roughly half a century, Hehmsoth and Mills bring a rare depth of shared musical language to the stage.
Blending original composition, modern swing, groove-driven improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Double Vision presents jazz as both a living tradition and an evolving art form.
Through performance, lecture-performance, and community-based programming, Double Vision connects music with visual art, creative writing, reflective listening, and Texas cultural history.
Double Vision Jazz Ensemble in performance.
Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega
Jacqueline Miller
Jacqueline Miller is a nationally published poet and spoken-word artist whose work has appeared in print, including in When the River Speaks.
Her poetry brings vivid imagery, rhythm, and emotional depth to both the page and live performance.
Eddie Vega
Eddie Vega is a poet, performer, and cultural leader whose work reflects the power of language, public expression, and community storytelling.
As San Antonio Poet Laureate, he brings a strong Texas voice to this interdisciplinary collaboration.
Hank Hehmsoth, John Mills, Utah Hamrick, and guest drums Rob Kazanel
Double Vision brings together accomplished musicians with distinctive individual voices. The ensemble thrives on musical dialogue, improvisation, original composition, and the long-term co-leadership of Hank Hehmsoth and John Mills.
Hank Hehmsoth
Hank Hehmsoth is a pianist, composer, educator, and cultural historian whose work brings together jazz performance, original composition, visual art, and Texas music history.
Along with John Mills, he co-leads Double Vision and contributes original compositions and a distinctive harmonic and improvisational voice.
John Mills
John Mills is a saxophonist, flutist, composer, and one of Austin’s most versatile jazz artists.
As co-leader of Double Vision, Mills contributes original compositions, expressive improvisation, and a deep command of modern jazz language developed over a career spanning more than five decades.
Utah Hamrick
Utah Hamrick provides the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of Double Vision.
His bass playing brings depth, clarity, and flexible support to the ensemble’s original compositions and improvisational dialogue.
Rob Kazanel
Rob Kazanel joins Double Vision as guest drummer for Texas Poets Meet Texas Jazz.
Plan your visit
Performance Information
Presented by: H Project Performing Arts Association (HPPAA)
With support from: Austin Jazz Society
Featuring: Double Vision Jazz Ensemble with poets Jacqueline Miller and Eddie Vega
Date: Sunday, November 29, 2026 · 7:30 PM
Admission: Free and open to the public
Free RSVP encouraged. Walk-ins are welcome as space permits.
Venue
Texas Music Museum
1009 E 11th St
Austin, TX 78702
Texas Music Museum
1009 E 11th St · Austin, TexasThis project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.
H Project Performing Arts Association develops artist-led public programs connecting contemporary jazz, interdisciplinary collaboration, education, and Texas cultural history.