Culture
School of Music’s Annual Jazz Jam Set for This Weekend
By: Emily Votaw
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Ohio University’s School of Music encourages all students, not only those majoring in some field within their particular school, to take part in many of the school’s performing ensembles throughout their academic career. The same philosophy applies to the annual Ohio University Alumni Jazz Jam, which is taking place this year Oct. 8 at Casa Nueva.
“It’s an event that we created a few year ago to pull back alumni to campus during Homecoming weekend to play music together,” said Matthew James, professor of saxophone and jazz studies, as well as the assistant director for academic affairs. “It’s also a way for alumni to come back and celebrate what our current students are doing.”
The jazz jam features performances by the School of Music’s current jazz ensembles as well as an evening of mostly sight reading music for some of the alumni.
“Some of those who return to campus are really dusting off their horns,” said James. “Perhaps music is not their profession, but they still want to connect with what they once did with the school.”
James emphasized that the event will be casual in nature, and those who don’t feel particularly comfortable with their instrument at this point in their life are still encouraged to “hide” in whatever section they wish and play along as they wish. There will also be a lot of general socializing taking place throughout the evening.
“We’ll have students come back to campus who graduated last spring, as well as students who graduated 30 years ago,” said Sean Parsons, assistant professor of jazz studies and music theory.
The evening kicks off at 10 p.m. and any alumni are encouraged to join in the fun by contacting either James at jamesm1@ohio.edu or Parsons at parsons1@ohio.edu.