Genres blend and notes bend as University musicians hone their skills for the start of the University’s “Jazz Week” Monday. 

The College of Musical Arts has put together a five-day series for next week in tribute to a truly American style of music that has played a significant role throughout the evolution of music and around the world.

“Jazz certainly has influenced other music,” said University professor and director of jazz activities Chris Buzzelli. “From jazz came rhythm and blues, and then eventually rock ‘n’ roll, so I think it has definitely played a role in shaping today’s music. But at the same time it’s definitely a bit of an acquired taste.”

Buzzelli said performances are scheduled every day next week and shows will be a mixture of student ensembles, faculty groups and guest performers. Though the series’ events will touch on several of the many different subgenres within the greater jazz gamut, Buzzelli believes the majority will be a kind easily appreciable for all — jazz buffs and jazz newbs alike.

“Most of it will be pretty straightforward and easy to understand, particularly the big band Friday night and the vocal jazz ensemble Thursday night,” he said. “Both of those bands are pretty accessible.”

The series will start Monday night with a piano recital from former University faculty member Russell Schmidt. David Bixler, a jazz sax instructor at the University, had the opportunity to look over some of Schmidt’s original work on Tuesday and said he was intrigued by what he saw.

“It looked pretty interesting,” Bixler said. “It’ll definitely make you think.”

Jazz Week continues Tuesday night with presentations from assorted student jazz combos, followed by a performance from the faculty jazz group on Wednesday. Thursday night a student vocal jazz group will perform under Buzzelli’s direction.

The series finds its crescendo Friday evening when guest musician Jay Ashby — a Grammy award winner and Paul Simon producer, according to Buzzelli — starts the night with a Brazilian percussion master class performance. Ashby will then follow his percussion set with a trombone performance before he sits in with the lab band for a grand concert that will feature many of Ashby’s original compositions, among others.

Bixler said he has not met Ashby personally but that from the talk he hears from those better acquainted, his talents pool most deeply in the Brazilian style he frequently brings.

“That’ll be something a little different than what we’ve had here before,” he said.

University grad student Brian Lang is playing saxophone in the lab band next Friday night. Lang said he started playing sax when he was in the sixth grade, but didn’t adopt jazz as his focus until coming to college.

“I was kind of a late bloomer when it comes to jazz,” he said. “I have always listened to jazz, my parents always listened to jazz, but I didn’t really start playing it until jazz band as an undergrad.”

Jazz has now become Lang’s foremost muse and his major, jazz performance studies, is a clear reflection of the fact.

“I really like the groove, the kind of swing feel it has,” he said. “Every style we play in the jazz idiom has its own groove that it represents, and I like that about it.”

Though appreciative of all of jazz’s styles, Lang said he is most drawn to its most contemporary adaptation, known as “modern mainstream,” which he described as “sort of a mesh of everything that has come before it.” The style will serve as the foundation for all of the series’ student performances, but Lang said Friday night’s lab band show will see influences from swing, blues and afro-Cuban varieties, via Atsby’s original pieces.

The University lab band has been preparing for their show next Friday since returning from spring break and a performance at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in Indiana, Lang said. Of all the series’ parts, Lang expressed greatest anticipation for the faculty group performance.

“It’s good to get to see them perform,” he said. “They are our teachers, but they are amazing musicians as well.”

All shows are free to attend and Monday — Thursday’s events will occur in the Bryan Recital Hall in the Moore Music Center. Friday night’s performances will take place in the building’s larger venue, Kobacker Hall.