By Adam Hushin
UConn Jazz Studies professor Earl MacDonald leads a free live Jazz performance every Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry Theatre, adjacent to Barnes and Noble in Storrs Center.
(From left) Nate Giordano, Steven McArdle, Tom Bora, and Grant Eagleson jam at the Tuesday Night Jazz performance in Storrs. (Photo credit: Mega Otgonbayar)
Each intimate performance includes freestyle jazz performances from UConn Jazz students Nate Giordano on bass, Steven McArdle on drums, Tom Bora on Guitar, and Grant Eagleson on Trumpet.
Other than Bora, who was performing in his first show, all the group members have been performing every semester since coming to UConn.
The performers have few written pieces that they perform, instead, most of the performance is freestyled live.
“A lot of people are surprised to find that this isn’t rehearsed,” Giordano said.
Shown here is McArdle, Bora, and Eagleson playing without sheet music. Almost the entire performance is not rehearsed, and is instead collaborated live.
“I need to have my sheet music right in front of me I don’t know how they do it,” Fellow music student Samantha Card said. Card, like many who come to view the shows, is impressed with the talent of the performers.
Both Card and Giordano stressed the importance of listening to jazz for yourself, and seeing live performances like this before making judgements.
“People hear jazz and they think, ‘oh that’s boring,’ but it’s actually not it’s pretty fun,” Card said.
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