10th Annual ATJS Jam Session
January 15, 2012

 

The 10th Annual ATJS Jam Session will be held at the Cap City Comedy Club on Sunday, January 15, 2012 from 2 to 5 p.m.

This annual event represents several things. Most important: it gives musicians who are not part of a regular band a chance to meet other jazz players in the Austin area. They get a stage to play on and a chance show what they can do. This is a tradition as old as jazz itself. Jazz players who impress may get some work out of it. This has happened at recent ATJS Jam Sessions.

Jazzman Dave Stoddard runs a structured jam session, assembling bands out of available players with varying levels of experience. Dave also tailors the tunes played by each group so that the more advanced groups tackle more complicated or obscure songs, while other groups might get more mainstream traditional tunes - still fun, still very effective. The result is some of the best jazz that ATJS presents all year. The 2011 Jam Session featured 21 jazz players, several appearing in the Jam Session for the first time.

The Jam Session also serves as an introduction to the Austin Traditional Jazz Society for people who might like to try listening to a traditional jazz concert but are not yet members. The Jam Session is a free concert, so come and hear some great traditional jazz created on-the-spot by some very talented players. Jazz musicians who would like to play the January 15th Jam Session are encouraged to send an e-mail to Dave Stoddard at dhs2@peoplepc.com.