Photo by: Megan Westervelt
Bobbing heads, tapping feet and swaying bodies fill the Williams Recital Salon in the Newman center every Friday night during Flo’s Underground. Flo’s is a free concert performed by 10 jazz ensembles from 5 to 7 p.m.
All of the ensembles are part of the curriculum of the Jazz Studies and Commercial Music (JSCM) program at the Lamont School of Music, said Malcolm Baker, the director of JSCM and helped to start Flo’s Underground in 2002. He named the concert series Flo’s Underground because the school is named after Florence Hinman Lamont and takes place ‘underground’ in the basement of the Newman Center, room 121. The name has another layer of meaning because a stream of water exists at the site of the building. There had to be a waterproof lining put around the building’s foundation to prevent erosion.
The 10 ensembles that participated are: Standards, Bebop, Hard Bop, Fusion, Latin, Modal, Vocal Repertoire, Vocal Jazz, Free Improvisation and Contemporary Combos. The vocal jazz groups draw a bigger crowd and so perform in room 130.
Each of these groups except Free Improvisation, Vocal Repertoire and Vocal Jazz play twice a quarter. They play once as hosts of a jam session where other musicians are invited to sit in. These musicians can be students not in the program. For the other concert they perform music they have rehearsed.
Each ensemble rehearses a minimum of three hours a week and at least one hour of those hours is spent with a faculty member from the JSCM program who are professional artists and teachers, said Baker.
“Our faculty contains many musicians that are well-known to the jazz community: Eric Gunnison, Alan Joseph, Ken Walker, Mike Marlier, Donna Wickham and myself,” Baker said.
Many students attend the concert every week.
“The regular audience gets to hear the development of the student musicians and actually develop friendships with some of them,” said Baker. “The [performers] get regular performance opportunities for appreciative audiences.”
“I get to hear the steady musical growth of the musicians and there is a consistent audience of community members that really enjoy the concerts and it’s great to provide that on a weekly basis,” said Baker.
Freshman Kim Sewell attends Flo’s almost every week and does so because “it’s a free music opportunity,” said Sewell who is a jazz major and will be performing with vocal jazz ensembles March 6.
“I come to support colleagues and friends,” said Dylan Johnson a senior who plays drums and performs with the Modal group.
The Latin group and Bebop performed last Friday. The Latin group performed “Cha-Cha-Cha,” “Ran Can Can,” “Mmboleah” and “Mmboette.” Freshmen Amy Darling played trumpet.
“I like seeing the audience’s reaction,” said Darling, who was met with a roar of applause after her brilliantly executed solo in “Cha-Cha-Cha.”
Other members of the group are David Harewood on piano, Max Manoles on tenor sax and flute, Max Abrahams on bass, John Swank on drum set, Lance Bender on congas and Bobby Lehman on electric guitar.
The Bebop group played “Rhythm-A-Ning,” “Boplicity (Be Bop Lives),” “Tempus Fugue-It,” “Smooch” and “Freight Trane.” In this ensemble, Michael Nourafshan plays drums, Aaron Roy plays bass, Alex Borje plays sax, Paul Edelman plays guitar and Nate Leichtman plays piano.
Other jazz events coming up are the Lamont Faculty Jazz Combo in Residence tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamilton Recital Hall and the Lamont Guest Artists Master Class and Workshop Series with Kevin Mahogany, a jazz vocalist, on March 2 at 3:30 p.m. in Williams Recital Salon. Admission to both of these events is free for students. For more information call the Lamont Concert Line at 303-871-6412, or visit www.du.edu/lamont.
