Swing in for a Funky Good Time With Jazz Showcase “All That Jazz!”

Get ready to swing into autumn with an energizing program from BYU’s premiere jazz groups! Synthesis, Jazz Ensemble, Syncopation and Jazz Legacy Band have put together a program that will bring audiences along a musical journey through the 20th and 21st centuries.

“Jazz is such a broad genre that this concert really helps audiences see [its] scope,” said Syncopation director Hayley Kirkland.

Mark Ammons, the director of the Jazz Ensemble, said that the breadth of the concert is meant to “help the students learn about the tradition and the heritage of jazz, as well as the styles and genres of jazz.” He added that this year’s song selection was influenced by both what the students thought interesting and what would keep audiences tapping their toes.

One of the fun parts about playing jazz, Kirkland commented, is that the music is so versatile. “If you have a good melody, you can play with it to any tempo [or] any style and really make it your own,” she said.

The groups this year will certainly make the music their own with new renditions of upbeat favorites like “Summertime,” “The Happy Song” and “Route 66,” among other beloved classics across the genre. Audiences can also expect some unexpected spontaneity in the familiar tunes.

“There’s a lot of spontaneous creativity and improvisation that are happening for the first time ever onstage,” commented Ray Smith, Synthesis director.

That improvisational spirit is a core part of jazz as a genre. Producing everything from funky new rhythms to impromptu riffs, jazz will take the listener on a musical rollercoaster of fun and inspiring twists and turns.

“[It’s] really the thing that gives a jazz musician an opportunity to draw closest to creation,” Ammons said, “being able to take elements and put them together and create something in the moment that is something of beauty and something that people can enjoy.”

As the talented jazz students get ready to make their stage debut this fall, their directors had no end of praise for their musical skills and eagerness to learn.

“They’re great people,” said Ammons. “They’re here wanting to learn, . . . to do good things and try to share the things that they learn with other people.”

Kristen Bromley, who directs the Jazz Legacy Band, said that audience members can look forward to “moving in their seats with the beats of the joyful jazz music” and to “leav[ing] the concert feeling spiritually, emotionally and physically uplifted and edified.”

The directors all expressed their hope that audiences will leave the showcase uplifted and edified.

“We hope they have fun, we hope they are inspired and we hope they leave the concert ready to better tackle whatever obstacles they are working on overcoming or assignments they are tasked with at the moment,” said Bromley.

Ammons added, “We hope that this concert and the music [will] be something that shares the light of Christ, because the light of Christ is something that brings joy and happiness and warmth to people. And that is certainly something that jazz just has at its core.”

Join BYU’s jazz groups on September 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall. Tickets are available at arts.byu.edu.