Jazz Ensemble & Combo

Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo provide fun and educational performance opportunities to all Cornell students by audition.  The groups are not contest bands but instead concentrate on developing playing skills and a deeper understanding of jazz styles.

Jazz Ensemble studies a Big Band repertoire while building ensemble skills, while Jazz Combo is a smaller group that focuses on improvisation. Most students take private music lessons but are not required to.

The groups are directed by Dr. Don Chamberlain and perform together at two major concerts in the fall and spring. Other typical venues include Family Weekend, campus dances, Cornell's Ratthskellar Grill, local high schools, and jazz clubs in Cedar Rapids. Big band rehearsals are Monday through Thursday from 3:15 – 4:05, and the combo meets 5:15 – 6:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays.

In 2004, jazz students participated in Early Jazz, a research-based course centered on early New Orleans and Kansas City jazz performers.  The class included a 10-day trip to both cities with studies at the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz at Tulane University in New Orleans and at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. The group also performed several times, notably at the Blue Room jazz club in Kansas City.