Handpicked student groups to perform at UCLA Jazz Combos Concert

UCLA students who volunteered to collaborate with musicians they’d never worked with before will perform together in concert.

The UCLA Jazz Combos Concert, taking place Monday in Schoenberg Hall, features six groups of UCLA jazz students who worked together throughout the quarter to produce their own individualized set list of songs. The groups consist of around six members each, many of whom have never collaborated previously, and are each directed by a faculty member.

Clayton Cameron, a group director and ethnomusicology lecturer, said participating in the combo concert allows student musicians to increase their skills by learning how to perform more difficult pieces and collaborate together. The students had to find a way to work among themselves and interact with each others’ sounds and styles for the performance. However, Cameron said it was not difficult to make the musicians synchronize as a group because of the likeness of music to language.

“If you know how to speak in French, you can speak with your friend in French. If you know German, you can speak with your friend in German,” he said. “They already have a foundation, and we’re just increasing their vocabulary.”

The groups were formed at the beginning of the school year. Jazz students, and anyone else interested in performing, auditioned before a board of jazz professors. The board members placed the chosen students into either vocal or instrumental jazz combo groups based on their instrument and how the board thought they would bond together personally and musically. After this, the combo faculty directors sent in requests to the selection board for players of specific instruments they needed, Cameron said. Each group met with their faculty director over the course of the quarter to decided on the pieces they wanted to perform at the concert, Cameron said.

Brendan Kersey-Wilson, a second-year vocal jazz studies student who plays the trombone, said performing with new people is always difficult. The nature of jazz music calls for instrumentalists to improvise in order to make their piece sound cohesive with a soloist – a difficult task when working in a group, Kersey-Wilson said. The group was forced to grow and listen to each other. Kersey-Wilson said he noticed his growth particularly in a piece called “Maiden Voyage.” Because the song is slower and more thoughtful, he said it helped him adapt musically by listening to what his group members would play and using that to add to his own performance.

“We’re all capable musicians, you know, so it’s not really about (skill) at this point,” Kersey-Wilson said. “But it’s more like, how we are going to communicate, develop together and also figure out how we’re going to be serving the music all together at the same time rather than trying to serve ourselves.”

There is a large emphasis placed on learning how to communicate with other musicians and accommodate multiple ideas, said Steve Murillo, a second-year global jazz studies student who plays the alto saxophone in the same group as Kersey-Wilson. Murillo said sharing expression through jazz music in a new combo allows them to practice for the real world, where one does not always know who they will be working with.

Cameron said he believes his background as a professional drummer allowed him to develop a better approach for cohesive performance. He said he focused on getting the rhythm section made up of bass, piano and drum players to work together. The rhythm and horn sections can perform a piece that sounds united as they complement each other by playing music that blends well together, Cameron said.

Sarah McKagan, a third-year jazz studies student, said she decided to branch out and sing in a vocal jazz combo rather than playing the trombone.She spent time observing the eight other vocalists, who perform separate pieces in the concert using the same rhythm section as she does. Depending on who was singing, McKagan said she noticed the same band that played behind her had different energy that catered to each of the individual tunes.

“I think there was a little bit of a learning curve with vocalists and instrumentalists and how we interact, and I think it will be really fun to experience that (at the concert),” McKagan said. “I’m excited to watch the other combos to see how they interact versus how we interact.”

Murillo said he is excited to display his group’s songs because he is venturing into the personally unexplored territory of performing with new people and a vocalist. The concert will demonstrate the ability of UCLA jazz musicians to adjust to working with new people in order to bring a performance together, he said. The combination of the spontaneous nature of jazz performance and the collaboration between all the group members adds to the live performance’s difficulty and excitement, Murillo said.

“It gives me a chance to apply what I’ve been practicing, try new things to see if it works or if it doesn’t,” Murillo said. “And that’s what the music is about: to play with other people.”