On Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, Penn Jazz hosted a Halloween-themed jazz concert titled "Haunted Harmonies."
The event, held at Houston Hall’s Bodek Lounge, attracted hundreds of members of the Penn community. On Nov. 1, Grammy-nominated saxophonist Jimmy Greene played with the band as their guest artist.
Penn lecturer in music and Penn Jazz Director Ryan Tomski expressed his support for members of the band in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
“I really love working with students who show me that jazz is more than just doing something for a grade,” Tomski said. “They’re really passionate about music, and they have to be, because they’re studying different things as their primary studies here.”
Tomski shared his personal experience with music and how it has affected him.
“Music is one of the only inherently joyful things we can do as human beings,” Tomski said. “If you asked me what jazz means to me, it can be right up there with some of the most important things in a person’s life, and for me, it definitely is.”
Tomski also shared Penn Jazz’s plans for the future, including more opportunities for guest artists to interact with band members.
“If we know well in advance that the artist is going to come in, I actually want to set up funding for that artist to be able to teach a master class and to be able to come in and rehearse with the band,” Tomski added.
RELATED:
Penn hosts alum, senior VP at iHeartMedia to kick off RealArts@Penn presentation series
Penn receives $5 million donation towards new theater in Student Performing Arts Center
A native of Connecticut, Greene is a jazz artist who has been featured in NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “CBS This Morning.” Greene’s Grammy-nominated album, “Beautiful Life,” is dedicated to his six-year-old daughter Ana, one of the 20 children killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He is also a Music professor and Co-Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Western Connecticut State University.
College sophomore and Penn Jazz president Alexander Hyams, who organized Greene’s appearance at the event, emphasized the value of bringing in skilled artists to play at Penn. The event was part of Penn Jazz’s new initiative to revive a tradition from the 1970s when it first started: bring back performances with in-demand artists.
“It’s an absolute treat to bring [in] guest artists,” Hyams said in an interview with the DP.
To prepare for the concert, Hyams and Tomski started looking for music in the Penn Jazz music library over the summer, which Tomski also did work to organize.
In between suits and dress pants, some members wore an orange tie in theme with Halloween. During their first concert on Oct. 31, there was also a costume contest hosted in the middle.
Hyams highlighted the close-knit nature of the jazz community at Penn and how jazz brings people together.
“Many of [Penn Jazz’s] members are also part of the Jazz Combos, which is curricular through the Music Department, and we form small combos for gigs around campus at fraternities and sororities, so we’re always playing,” he said. “We’re always able to put together some kind of ensemble and really just add life to a lot of events here."
