Guitarist Conor Mack (Spring, 2024) on stage at SOHO Restaurant and Music Club in downtown Santa Barbara, guest artists for the Santa Barbara Jazz Society, Spring 2023.
The UCSB Jazz Ensemble boasts a number of different jazz ensembles ranging from standard sized big band to duos and trios, and has in the past also included Latin Jazz ensemble (3 horns, 3 percussion, piano, guitar, bass, vocalist), 10 piece "little big bands", and standard sized jazz combos.
BIG BAND
The UCSB Jazz Ensemble "Big Band" is the flagship ensemble of the UCSB Jazz Ensemble community, and features the top jazz musicians at UCSB. The ensemble performs standard big band and jazz orchestra repertoire from the jazz tradition, including works from the libraries of Ellington and Strayhorn, Count Basie, Maria Schneider, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Bill Holman, and many more. It features standard big band instrumentation, and often features addition instruments and vocalists, as well as periodic guest artists joining the ensemble.We perform three formal concerts per year (one per quarter) and in many other environments, both formal and informal, during the academic year. Video recording of past performances can be found on the YouTube channels of both the UCSB Jazz Ensemble and UCSB Music Departments.
COMBOS
Combos are small jazz groups, typically one of each instrument, that play standard and contemporary jazz repertoire from such artists as Miles Davis, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Hank Mobley, and many others. Groups range from quartets and quintets to octets and larger, and concentrate on a variety of standard jazz genres and sub genres. These groups also generally include vocalists who learn to create their own arrangements and to interact with jazz instrumentalists. The experience of these groups range from advanced beginners to the professional levels, and demands that students be very familiar with jazz theory, improvisation, and jazz tradition and performance etiquette.
JAZZ LAB
The "Jazz Lab" is a training ground for students who are new to jazz performance and have never played in a non big band jazz ensemble before. Typically it is offered in the Fall quarter of each year, but occasionally there is enough interest to continue it throughout the year. "Graduates" of this group will find themselves in the big band and other advanced combos, and some of former "Jazz Lab" students have gone on to study jazz performance at major institutions and pursued professional careers in music. Repertoire is chosen to encourage an understanding of jazz theory and improvisation, and to impart the basics of small group jazz performance etiquette and expectations.
WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES
The UCSB Jazz Ensemble presents opportunities for our students to interact with and learn from some of the best living jazz musicians through partnerships with local arts presenters such as the Lobero Theater Foundation, UCSB's own Arts and Lectures, and musicians brought to UCSB by the UCSB Jazz Ensemble. Through Arts and Lectures, we have interacted with such artists as members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Artemis, Lakecia Benjamin, Chick Corea, Arturo Sandoval, Joshua Redman, Kendrick Scott, and this year we look forward to classes with Snarky Puppy's Michael League, and pianist Hiromi. The Lobero Theater Foundation has been kind enough to provide Santa Barbara area school with annual visits from New Orleans based Derek Douget Quintet, featuring saxophonist/leader Derek Douget and his band of trumpeter Ashlin Parker (pictured to the left), pianist Victor Atkins, drummer Adonis Rose, and bassist Jason Stewart. The UCSB Jazz Ensemble has presented an impressive list of guest artists, including such luminaries as saxophonist Pete Christlieb, pianist Jeff Babko, trombonist Robin Eubanks, trumpeter Bobby Shew, and most recently Barbara Laronga, a trumpet artist from Los Angeles who joined us for a March 2023 exploration of "Women in Jazz".