Jazz Society

Welcome to UCL’s jazziest society! Here's everything you need to know: we’re a friendly and enthusiastic group of musicians who love everything there is to love about jazz! Whether you’ve never played any jazz before, are a pro performer already or just enjoy the genre, you will find lots on offer, as well as the diverse and busy community at the heart of it.READ BELOW to find out what we’re doing in the next year of jazz  The last Jazz Year in numbers: 8 societies that we collaborated with7 flutes in our non-auditioned Big Band6 weekly events5 shows4 jazzy footie teams3 uni bars performed in2 Ronnie Scott’s pub crawls1 Arts Award for Diversity and Welfare All of this and more just in 2 terms! This coming year is going to look different to what’s come before, but we are completely committed to maintaining momentum and keeping our jazz community thriving for all of our members, regardless of whether they can be found on campus or not. HOW CAN YOU JOIN IN ON THE JAZZ? Non-auditioned Choir- regular in person sectional rehearsals on campus, online socials and games nights, vocal workshops from our Choir instructor Ryan, online vocal video submissions throughout the term, weekly warm ups and ‘song of the week’ for you to practice jazz standards!Non-auditioned Big Band- Music Mondays: each Monday, we will post a particular chart for that week for our members to play through! There will be sheet music (and recordings of previous Big Band’s playing if they exist) made available via our Google Drive so you can practise the music in your own time. There will also be the option to send in individual/group recordings, which we will showcase on our social media at the end of the week, and we will look to create bi-termly videos of all of Big Band playing together (see our One Mint Julep video above!) The first Big Band social will be the virtual quiz on 15th October.Wednesday Workshops- weekly online workshops categorized by styles and improv technique provided by our jazz guru Yueyang! Transcriptions and licks will be provided as well as prepared practice materials to help you, and a workshop facebook group chat to solve any jazz related questions Small bands- regular in person playing on campus to be livestreamed to our members, not much preparation needed and musicians of all availabilities welcome (you don't have to solo if you don’t want to) to play some jazz standards together, find the form on facebook to register yourself! We will also make small band videos for those who are remote this term!Socials- all of our socials will take place online: we've got plans for movie nights using Netflix Party, album listenings and even potentially a big Zoom quiz! (Remember those?) Our first event will be on October 1st, and they will happen regularly for as long as we have to! Follow our social media pages and check the calendar to keep up to date with what events we have lined up!Volunteering and Charity- instead of performing in hospitals this term, we will be sending off our small band videos to charities for entertainment, and setting jazz charity challenges to raise money for Tomorrow’s Warriors! Find our page on the volunteering fair here: https://studentsunionucl.org/volunteering/organisation/jazz-society-volunteering-projectAlong with all of this we are also organising talks from external speakers, welfare coffee hoursand our Bloomsbury Theatre show The Jazz Age is scheduled for February (see Recorda-me below!).   Last year saw a huge emphasis on Diversity and Welfare in Jazz society, which meant we won the Diversity and Welfare Awardout of all the UCL Arts Societies! We collaborated with Live Music for our This Girl Canworkshop and hosted themed Jams focusing on celebrating under-represented groups such as our female and international members. We will continue and build on this work this year. To celebrate diversity and challenge stereotypes, we will be reorganising The Inter-Arts ‘Diversity in Music Panel’ where will invite professional musicians to share their experiences being marginalised, and to create a safe space for members to share their experiences and find community. We are looking to host this online towards the end of Term 1! This year we are developing our educational aspects to make it easier for people of any background to keep it jazzy. We will be providing music recommendations as part of ‘New Music Friday’, as well as profiles and context behind certain Jazz artists and music so that our members learn more about the History of Jazz. Along with our workshops helping you develop your skills, we will also be pushing for more of our members to learn how to arrange so that you can write and have your music performed as part of our shows! MembershipYou must have membership to attend any of our events. If you want to attend any of our in person activity or online workshops you must purchase our £15 membership. The exceptions to this are for the first two give it a go workshops and the freshers in person choir rehearsal. All of our other events can be attended with our free remote membership - make sure you get it so that you can be involved!