Carolina Alumni Review - September/October 2009

The first checking account is a rite of passage that many UNC students take for granted. No matter how many checks they bounce, sooner or later banking responsibly becomes a part of life. It is highly probable that UNC alumni will rarely, if ever, pay high fees for pay-day lending, cashing checks, storefront bill-paying or other such financial practices, right?

Derwin Lathan Dubose ’06 might have made the same assumptions if his family hadn’t run into some tough money problems while he was an undergraduate. Solving those problems got Dubose thinking about financial literacy. Why would anyone cash a check for a 5 percent fee instead of going to the bank? Maybe, Dubose suggests, because banks are intimidating. Their services can be complicated and potentially costly. Those bankers in nice clothes might not look so friendly if you are facing big credit problems.

Thinking about that scenario made it an

Money Man

easy decision for him when North Carolina’s

Treasurer Janet Cowell asked Dubose — who attended UNC as a

Morehead Scholar and was annual fund director for the Ronald McDonald

House and Family Room of Durham — to take on the new position of director of financial literacy for her office. His first assignment is implementing a program called Bank on

North Carolina. “An estimated half million households do not have any type of relationship with a bank,” Dubose points out. “These households are spending almost as much on services to just get their pay in cash as an average North Carolina state employee contributes to retirement. That’s a lot of lost savings.”

Bank on North Carolina will combine

Derwin Lathan Dubose ’06 signed on to help N.C. Treasurer Janet Cowell improve financial literacy among the state’s residents.

financial literacy education programs with low- to no-fee, low- to zero-minimum-balance bank accounts, acceptance of alternative forms of identification (such as Mexican documents) and short-term loan programs. N.C. Banking Commissioner Joseph Smith Jr. also is on board. “Each bank usually has a pot of money set aside for the community,” Dubose says. “This offers them a way to offer services and bring in customers while serving the local community.”

In addition to being more comfortable with banking, Dubose’s definition of financial literacy includes helping people keep homes, build assets to buy a home and solve problems related to job loss, death of a spouse and other life changes.

MUSIC

Thrillers

Six years ago, a senior jazz major at UNC formed a band dedicated to the music of Michael Jackson. When the pop superstar died June 25, Vamsi Tadepalli ’04 and his band, Who’s Bad, became the inadvertent heirs to a legend. “We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Tadepalli says. “It’s too bad it took Jackson’s passing for people to look at this in a more positive light.”

Who’s Bad played only six shows in its first six months but gradually grew to 150 shows last year. Since June, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. The band is fully booked and on the road, with one short stop at home, Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro on Sept. 18. The current lead singer, Joseph Bell, has such a taxing job that the group is bringing back the original Jackson performer, Taaliv York, so the two can alternate shows.

Tadepalli also is a jazz musician, playing saxophone, and an admirer of greats such as Charlie Parker, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and John Coltrane. When UNC music Professor Jim Ketch brought pianist Barry Harris to town for a few clinics, Tadepalli found his mentor. “Barry Harris is the last living legend of bebop,” Tadepalli says. “Harris takes a song, breaks it down and teaches you how to play over this with harmonies. In 2004 I attended a

PHOTOS COUR TESY WHOSBADMUSIC.COM

Vamsi Tadepalli ’04, second from left, says his Michael Jackson tribute band, Who’s Bad, has been booked solid.

four-week clinic with Harris in Holland. He calls me his adopted Indian son.”

True to Harris’ teaching, Tadepalli digs deeper than the surface of the music when working on pieces for Who’s Bad. He says that when you see all the hype and commerce that swirls around Jackson’s image, don’t forget to listen to the music at the heart of his fame. “What makes this pop star’s music complex?” asks Tadepalli, who once wrote an arrangement of Thriller for the UNC Marching Band when he was a member. “When I listen to Jackson, especially Off the Wall and the later work and the Thriller album, it is like butter, the way everything is layered. Those are jazz chords that people don’t even use today. The way that

Booking agent: Zack Johnson ’00 • Promo video: Kris Hixson ’ 97 • Current band members: Patrick Cross ’07 (guitar) • Raymond McCall ’02 (trumpet)

• Previous band members: Matt Brandau ’01 (bass)

• Stephen Coffman ’06 (drums) • Dana Chell ’00
(guitar) • Matt McCaughan ’ 98 (drums) • Asher
Stein ’04 (saxophone) • Kevin Timmons ’05
(keyboards/bass) • Mark Wells ’ 98 (keyboards)
Web site: www.whosbadmusic.com
More Who’s Bad Tar Heels

he mixes everything it sounds so pure, especially with the background vocals coming in on top. It’s all analog, but they are able to produce those sounds. I just wanted to re-create that in a live setting. If I could get a band that can play something that sounds like the record, I’ll enjoy it and so will other people.”