Every Thursday, if you are lucky, you might hear music flowing out of lower Sproul, just audible above the tablers and unexpected meetings between friends. And if you have the time to follow your ears down into the bottom of the Student Union, you will find some very talented musicians putting on a free concert for anyone who cares to listen.
This is how I discovered that every week there is a group of students from UC Jazz that put on a free show at noon in Lower Sproul; Concerts that over the past year that I have come to know and love. But these events are more than just a venue to hear some lively jazz, they are also a place where a musical community has come together to make something truly beautiful.
It was one sunny and still fairly cold day in Spring, which really felt more like Fall, when I first ran into these concerts. It was that time in the semester when the carefully laid plans you had to take care of all your responsibilities suddenly fall through and you feel like there isn’t time for anything anymore, but when I walked by I couldn’t help but sit and listen. While life felt like a day-in-day out grind, when I was sitting there I couldn’t help being moved by the music.
Over the course of the semester I developed a routine of spending my Thursday afternoons in between classes and responsibilities, for a magical hour with a jazz performance that never failed to take me away from my worries and my midterms and make my head shake and my feet move. Because not only are these concerts a celebration of a genre of music that I have come to love so much over the course of the last year, but also a desperately needed break in my day that gets me to relax and enjoy Berkeley’s temperate Fall weather and the simple pleasures in life. So, naturally, I had to find out more about these concerts and the artists who are featured in them.
I was able to interview Ted Moore, who is both the Director of UC Jazz and the mentor of several of the groups, to ask him more about these concerts and what they mean for the artists. During our conversation he said that UC Jazz is first and foremost about the students:
“It’s amazing how important this program is for students. It creates an environment of enthusiasm [about music],” Moore said.
He went on to say that while you might expect this program to be dominated by music majors “95% are not here for [academic] credit…they aren’t music majors. They are here because they choose to be here.”
When I asked him about how long these concerts had been going on, Ted admitted he really wasn’t sure. “I have pictures in the archive from previous years, some go back pretty far…at least 40 years. We’ve played various places…We used to play in Lower Sproul, then bear’s lair, and now we are on the other side of Sproul.”
Clearly these concerts have a long history, and they don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon: “The main thing for us is to continue what we are doing…The charter of UC Jazz is to have a place for students to play this music and to provide as many places to exhibit that as possible.” His mission is to “reach the musicians, but everyone is the goal.”
The passion the program brings to the performers is very visibly on display during these concerts as students play both standards and original pieces. This past week I heard Ted Moore’s Advanced, which showcased exactly this. Whether it was the very clean and initially slow, moving rendition of “Sea Journey” by Chick Corea which began to swell and swell with the spotlight of the melody passing gradually between the piano, the saxophone, and the drums only to build to a climax with a seemingly effortless duet of piano and sax. Or the very next piece which was an interpolation of “New Jeans” by New Jeans, arranged by the alto saxophonist and UC Jazz president Chris He.
This performance felt much more like a subtle yet determined struggle over the solos, making the mood light but still producing a driving sound which made it one of my favorites of the set. All throughout the expressions of the musicians would shift from grins and inaudible chuckles as they used their instruments to communicate what felt like an inside joke one another, to a rare face that betrayed a concentration on a solo improvisation so great singular (one that is both unique to and an iconic part of the genre) that it defies explanation or any sort of description: in other words you just gotta be there.
My favorite way to enjoy these concerts is with a friend and a double scoop of gelato found in the Almare kiosk in the University–owned cafe less than a dozen feet away (which admittedly is not as good as the gelato from the Downtown location). There are only a few weeks left of these performances, which conclude on November 30th, so please do yourself a favor and follow the music. And if there is anything I am trying to say in this piece, it is that music has a profound ability to change your day, your week, your year, and your life. So please take a moment to stop by Lower Sproul on Thursdays to see how the music moves you: I promise you won’t regret it.
P.S
UC Jazz has their Fall concert on November 7th at Freight and Salvage, where the three advanced combos will perform: tickets are $8 for students.
And a special thanks to Ted Moore, Diana Kalantar, Chris He, and all of the musicians and instructors who make the music possible.
Article by Julian Shea
Header art by Heather Highland