Twice every term, a room in the Music Building is transformed into a swanky jazz club complete with butcher paper on the tables, crayons, tea lights and snacks in preparation for the Jazz Café, a concert presented by the University Jazz Studies Department. The next event, being held Friday at 8 p.m., will feature University undergraduate and graduate student jazz combos playing in a traditional jazz performance setting.
Four groups usually play at the Jazz Café. Their repertoire includes classic and contemporary jazz standards as well as original compositions written by students. Friday’s performance will include arrangements by jazz icons Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Wayne Shorter and Charlie Parker.
Jazz Studies instructor Mike Denny, coordinator of the combo program and cafés, said the event is an opportunity for students to play in a setting similar to a bar or night club in preparation to play in that sort of environment in the future.
“There’s a certain amount of pressure that goes into performing and (the students) have to be responsible,” he said. “It’s a very supportive atmosphere and the students need that.”
The students who perform at the events are part of eight combos formed at the beginning of fall term after students auditioned to be in a class focused on group performances. The groups practice, perform and take turns appearing in the Jazz Café throughout the year. They are supervised by a faculty member or a graduate student who serves as an adviser to each combo.
A group of University Jazz Studies graduate teaching fellows began the Jazz Café seven years ago, and the Jazz Studies Department has continued it.
“Jazz has a tradition of learning as you go. … It’s a great opportunity for students new to jazz to perform and learn form their performances,” said GTF Hashem Assadullahi, who advises several combos and is in one himself.
Denny encourages University students to go see the Jazz Café because it is organized, professional and the music is high-level.
“Because it’s jazz – the music is upbeat and engaging,” he said.
“There’s a whole broad spectrum of jazz played,” Assadullahi said. He added that there are a lot of students in the combos who are not music majors and that the combos are open to everyone.
While the Jazz Café is put together by the faculty of the Jazz Studies Department, Steve Owen, the department’s director, believes students have kept the event alive for as long as it has been going on.
“The ‘energy’ behind the Café has always been our students… their involvement and eagerness to keep the event fun,” he wrote in an e-mail regarding the event.
Tickets for Friday’s Jazz Café, held in 178 Music, are $3 for students and seniors and $5 for general admission. The proceeds from ticket sales and concessions go toward student scholarships. For more information on future Jazz Cafés, check the Jazz Studies Department’s Web site at jazz.uoregon.edu.