SPEC committee brings Jazz and Grooves to Penn's campus

After seeing electronic musician Dan Deacon perform at a concert that Social Planning and Events Committee Jazz and Grooves organized his sophomore year, College senior Jason Oscar knew he wanted to join the committee. “He put on such a good show. It was so, so fun,” he said.

“I was like, I want to be in the organization that is bringing these cool bands to campus.”

Jazz and Grooves is a SPEC committee of about 20 members known for organizing shows featuring up-and-coming indie and electronic bands, as well as rappers, DJs and producers. Often collaborating with other SPEC committees, student groups and fraternities, they host six to eight events a year.

Founded in 2002, Jazz and Grooves once hosted mostly jazz artists like Béla Fleck and Branford Marsalis.

“Jazz and jazz-influenced music was the core mission of the group …in our minds at the time,” explained 2006 College graduate Matthew Berns, a former Jazz and Grooves director.

But Berns’ successors defined “jazz” and “grooves” more loosely.

They brought jazz and improvisational artists like Soulive and Medeski Martin & Wood, as well as electronic and rock musicians. The electronic jam band Lotus played at Irvine Auditorium in February 2007.

These days, the committee brings more grooves than jazz to campus.

“The name is misleading because we don’t really put on jazz shows,” said Oscar, who co-edits Jazz and Grooves’ blog.

Co-Director and Wharton senior Brandon Newberg said the committee is less focused on promoting a specific genre of music than being in the vanguard, presenting exciting up-and-coming artists. “It’s more about the stage in people’s career that we’re going after, rather than the kind of artists,” he said. “We try to get people right before they get popular.”

The committee gets together to brainstorm artists they’d like to see on campus, taking into account how different artists might play off each other in a particular lineup.

Former director Joseph Gross, a 2008 College graduate, said, “You want to find acts that people are going to want to go and see.… It’s not about a traditionalist approach. It’s about getting students to come out and see the show.”

Jazz and Grooves had a hand in planning Fling for the first time last year, organizing a show of local bands on the Lower Quadrangle stage during Saturday’s carnival. This year, they will be responsible for both Quad stages’ programming on Saturday. They plan to bring a mix of Penn student groups and outside artists.

“Penn bands are just as important … to the Fling atmosphere, but we think that professional musicians bring something [else] to the table,” Newberg said. “It should just liven up the whole event and make it more exciting.”

Berns remembers using thefacebook.com to advertise concerts to college students outside the Penn community in the mid-2000s.

“We basically searched for people in colleges who had said that they liked jazz or said that they liked bands that we were having … and sent them messages,” he said. “You couldn’t ‘like’ bands or anything, but you could list your interests.”

Jazz and Grooves has continued to use social media to promote their events.

Their website and blog, launched last March. The website features blog posts promoting Jazz and Grooves shows and also includes daily song posts and playlists.

It is also intended to serve as an introduction to the Philadelphia music scene, advertising various cultural events on its Google Calendar and including a weekly post called “What You Should Be Doing This Week.”

“We want to be able to expand and burst that Penn bubble,” added College junior Tyler Pridgen, a Jazz and Grooves committee member.

Upcoming events include a concert at Castle on Nov. 16, featuring Belgian EDM artist Aeroplane. Young Skeeter, a DJ who toured with Katy Perry, will open the concert.

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