The West Texas Jazz Society will be hosting its quarterly jam session from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Flair Taverna, 2701 JBS Parkway.
The event is free and open to the public. Jazz lovers who play an instrument or sing are encouraged to come and play.
“They’re a wonderful partner to have for a lot of music in our community,” West Texas Jazz Society President Eric Baker said. “We provide a small, jazz combo, and we invite the community to bring their own instruments. There are people who love to play jazz, and this is a great opportunity for them to come up on stage and call a song and the band will play along with them and give them a chance to shine. We have vocalists. People can come up and sing.”
Baker said that the jam session is a great opportunity for younger musicians in the community.
“We’ve been having several high school students and college students from UTPB and Odessa College come out and participate as well,” Baker said. “It’s just a really relaxed atmosphere and even if you don’t want to play or sing a song, we have a lot of people who just come and support.”
Flair Taverna has been opened for about a year now and Baker says they’ve been a big part of the jazz community.
“From day one, their owner really wanted to have music as a featured part of their business,” Baker said. “I think right now, every Thursday, Friday and Sunday, they have live music at Flair Taverna. They have blues, jazz, singer-songwriter types, just a really wide collection of musicians that perform there in the bar area.”
Musicians featured will include Jimmy Olague on drums and Mark Lowe on bass. On the keyboards will be Dan Ferguson, and Alberto Madrid will play guitar. Baker said they’ll have Jordan Holmes on saxophone.
Baker himself will be doing the emcee duties and playing trumpet as well.
“This is always such a fun event because it’s really laid back,” Baker said. “It’s really relaxed. There’s not a lot of difficult prep work that goes into it. All the musicians that come are local. So people just drive up and grab their instrument and come in and make music for a couple of hours. We also use some local professionals who are affiliated with the local jazz society to provide support. For example, if someone wants to play a saxophone as part of the jam session, well we provide the drum, the bass, the keyboards, the guitar and things like that. We set up all the other equipment for sound just in case someone else wants to come up and participate.”
For those who have never attended one of these events, Baker says people might be surprised by what they listen to when they come out.
“If you’ve never experienced something like this, I encourage you to come out because it really is a lot of fun,” Baker said. “It’s really accessible. There are some people who think that jazz music is a little cerebral or distant or a little bit elite. But we want to prove that jazz music is for everyone and that there is something for everyone to enjoy.”
If you go
- What: West Texas Jazz Society Jam Session.
- When: 2-4 p.m. Sunday.
- Where: Flair Taverna, 2701 JBS Parkway.
