SOUTH SUBURBAN COLLEGE JAZZ COMBO AND VOICES BRING COMMUNITY TOGETHER

“South Suburban College’s Department of Music provides various music programs for students and community musicians to further their education in music and perform in music ensembles,” according to ssc.edu.
“South Suburban College’s Department of Music provides various music programs for students and community musicians to further their education in music and perform in music ensembles,” according to ssc.edu.

SOUTH SUBURBAN COLLEGE JAZZ COMBO AND VOICES BRING COMMUNITY TOGETHER

By Chris Shuttlesworth

The musicians of South Suburban College Jazz Combo and the South Suburban College Voices thrilled the audience with tunes by jazz legends on Wednesday, March 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the Kindig Performing Arts Center on SSC’s Main Campus. Sam Hankins directed the Jazz combo while Doug Ulrich guided the SSC voices.

The mission of the South Suburban College Music Department is to offer educational and service programs in music for the Chicago south suburban community. In keeping with the mission statement of the college as a whole, the music department is dedicated to: high quality education, training, and services for all individuals who have the ability to benefit from SSC’s programs through community ensembles, private lessons, classroom, online theory and survey courses, according to ssc.edu.

Rob Calhoon, who has been a band director for more than 20 years

and who has served as director at SSC for three years, said one of the

greatest things about Jazz is that it’s a standard music that is constantly

evolving because of the creativity of the players themselves.

“Jazz taps into the musicians’ and the listeners’ creative side,”

Calhoon said. “One thing that makes Jazz music distinct from other

musical forms is its observation. The players get to stand up on stage and create on the spot and everybody in the band and the combos listen and react to what they’re doing…whether it be the rhythm section giving a little extra hit here and there based on what the trumpet players just played or the audience reacting verbally or with a smile or a nod.”

“Jazz is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in the mind, inspired by one’s passion, and willed next in playing music. Its unique expression draws from life experience and human emotion as the inspiration of the creative force, and through this discourse is chronicled the history of a people. Jazz and Blues are among America’s greatest cultural achievements and exports to the world community giving powerful voice to the American experience. Born of a multihued society, it unites people across the divides

of race, region and national boundaries and has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and American identity at home and

abroad,” according to apassion4jazz.net.

“Jazz, of course, is not an invention. It’s alive. It grows, it dies, it changes, and it stays the same. Jazz is to American music what the

Mississippi is to America, and just as many rivers feed into the Mississippi, music (and musicians) from many cultures came together in the creation of Jazz. More evidence of early Jazz was produced by Papa Jack Laine’s band in New Orleans circa 1885 when it was noted that he played with a “ragged time,” which meant the musicians were playing

variations on the tempo to make it “swing.”

Irishman Papa Jack Laine’s Reliance Brass Band was the training ground for many of the musicians, white, black and creole, who went on to pioneer Jazz in their own ensembles,” according to the neworleansonline.com.

Joanne Tassin, who was SSC Jazz Combo and SSC Voices Concert Organizer, said while she doesn’t attend the concerts, the significant qualities about jazz music she has noticed is that it brings the community together, makes the neighborhood happy and people who play

or listen to jazz really like it.

Photo Caption for photos: “South Suburban College’s Department of Music provides various music programs for students and community musicians to further their education in music and perform in music ensembles,” according to ssc.edu.

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