Jazz & Grooves expands presence on campus, hosting concert for Fling

Jazz & Grooves knows what Penn students want even before they do.

A branch of the Social Planning and Events Committee, the group aims to bring “up-and-coming acts” to Penn who don’t necessarily have strong name recognition yet, according to College sophomore Dominic Watson, one of the three directors of Jazz & Grooves.

Within the past few years, Jazz & Grooves has grown significantly. When Wharton senior Brandon Newberg first got involved with Jazz & Grooves, he said the group only put on two concerts a year, reaching about 500 to 600 students. He became a director in his sophomore year and said he worked hard to “push the envelope” to expand the group’s influence on campus.

Now Jazz & Grooves hosts six concerts each year, including at Spring Fling, and has a blog that they regularly update. Newberg estimated that their concerts now reach over 4,000 students each year.

Last year, for the first time, they hosted their own series of concerts in the Quad during Spring Fling.

Wharton senior and Jazz & Grooves member Raj Gopal said that this year’s artists are even bigger and higher-profile than those that performed last year.

This Saturday afternoon, they will host Autre Ne Veut, a small R&B band from New York, along with the DJ Gigamesh and the headliner Delorean.

Gigamesh is a DJ famous for his work producing songs like “Cooler Than Me” by Mike Posner and for remixing songs like “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People, according to Newberg.

As the headliner, Delorean — an electronic dance music band from Barcelona — has “the perfect vibe for the Quad,” said Engineering junior Irene Jadic, social chair of Jazz & Grooves.

“The difference from past years is that we’re bringing artists that could be considered part of the Fling lineup,” Jadic said.

Newberg said that although Jazz & Grooves doubled their talent budget from last year, “the total spent does not even come close to paying for the opener for the Fling concert.”

“We get [the artists] at the point in their careers before they blow up and get out of our price range,” Watson said.

Newberg also said they switched up the format of the performances a bit from last year. This year all the artists will perform on Saturday instead of Friday, and they’ll be mixed in among the other student performers throughout the afternoon.

Only a few years ago, Jazz & Grooves had only four active committee members, a number which has now reached almost 30, according to Newberg.

They’ve also had a few other “firsts,” Newberg said, like hosting the first SPEC event with alcohol and putting on concerts at new venues like the Arts, Research and Culture House and fraternity houses.

Jadic said that the rest of campus has responded well to their stronger presence. “We’re getting a definite rise in number of group members and interested people,” she said.

Their Fling performers may also be firsts for many students, but Jadic is confident that they’ll put on great shows. “If you’re not dancing, something’s wrong,” she said.

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