Walking up to the Nest’s Egg, panting from the steps, you’ll hear the swinging contrabass, ad lib keys and brass grow louder.
That’s the members of the UBC Jazz Club striking up their weekly Monday night jam session.
“[Monday jams are] the meat and potatoes of the club and we get anywhere between 40 to 100 people every night passing through to play or just to hang out,” said UBC Jazz Club Co-President Ben Rossouw.
The club is rooted in the warmth and connection of the genre. Whether you're approaching the club as a seasoned cat or a rookie swinger, there’s always room for new musicians.
“[We want] to have a good time,” Co-President Isabel Huang added. “Because it can be really intimidating to get into music if you have never gotten into it before. But I think that's something we prioritize in our club — to welcome not just experienced players, but people from all backgrounds.”
And that support is a reason to stay. Many students stay involved in the club for their entire UBC career and beyond, growing together as musicians, mentees and band members.
“You’ve seen all these people grow and develop so much as musicians,” said Rossouw. “You get elevated and then you're out into the world and you have jazz with you.”
Some would argue that jazz is a dying genre. The Jazz Club begs to differ.
Like a living organism, jazz is constantly growing, evolving and swinging in new directions far beyond its control. Rossouw quoted music’s free-form icon Frank Zappa: “jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.”
The momentum is real, and it lies in youth.
“It's amazing that [jazz] is being exposed to younger people, because that means that these people can take this genre which has existed for a long time ... and be inspired by them to make something new,” Huang said.
And as Rossouw and Huang pointed out, having that medium of creative output fosters community.
“We have no idea how many [lonely people] there are because they're too busy being lonely. They're locked up in their rooms studying and then they pursue careers,” Rossouw said.
“People who don't get involved in something centered around art and culture, when they leave university, they start working. And what do they do when they go home?” Huang added.
“I think if you were to look back and say, ‘what was more valuable to my life, the time that I was spending watching TV, or the time that I was spending going outside, playing a show or jamming out with the people I love?’ ... for me personally, the latter would be much more valuable,” Huang said. “Not just in terms of enjoyment, but in my own personal development.”
So if you like jazz just as much as that bee from that movie, you should consider listening in on a jam session or joining in on the music. Pack your instrument and some blues scales, because the UBC Jazz Club would love to see you there.