Rowan University hosted its 56th annual jazz festival, a three-day event between Feb. 11 and 13.
During the three days, numerous middle school and high school bands came to Rowan University to practice with the Profs, all finishing up with a Jazz concert on Friday night.
Rowan Professor, director of the Jazz Performance and Composition Programs and Executive Director of the Maynard Ferguson Institute of Jazz at Rowan University, Dennis DiBlasio, spoke about the importance of bringing in young musicians.
“We’re trying to make fans of the music by having them be here. It’s not a competition,“ said Diblasio. “It’s all levels, and because it’s all levels, we have people who won’t go to any other festival … There were sixth graders. They just started it [playing], so they have no place to go. They could never go to a festival if it’s competitive.”
Diblasio also talked about the structure of these practices.
“High school (and below) bands come during the day, and they play, and we critique them, and we help them, and we sit in, and we play with them, give them pointers, meet every band where they’re at, and we help them improve and make suggestions,” said DiBlasio. “They see how much we love it, and hopefully, we can make them love it.”
After all the young bands get their time to practice and grow an interest on Friday afternoon, the Rowan Jazz band comes into Pfleeger Hall to wrap up with a 90-minute concert.
This creates a lot of moving parts that go into not only this event, but all the other events around it.
The theatre arts management operations manager, Deanna Ford, spoke about the chaos that the field of theater management brings.
“Some of the jazz bands come in. There are 20 to 30 members from these high schools,” Ford said.“Then, Wednesday night, we had to transition for rehearsal for tonight’s [Feb. 13] performance, and then back again for two more days of [the] festival till today.”
This, however, doesn’t mark the end of her duty, as there is more to the Pfleeger concert hall than just concerts.
“From this tonight [Feb. 13], I go to a full dance setup. This all has to go away [concert setup], and I have to put a dance floor down and dance lighting,” said Ford. “The systems are a bit more complicated, but we have a wonderful staff of 10 to 12 student workers who help us.”
During this semester of 108 days, Ford and the rest of the staging crew will staff 109 events.
During the concert, Sharel Cassity, a highly decorated jazz musician and director of jazz at the University of Virginia, performed with the Rowan Jazz band.
Some of the songs performed were written by Cassity herself, such as “Surrender“ (2020).
Cassity isn’t a stranger to visiting other universities, talking about the importance of her visits.
“I take time off of my school to do these strategic things every once or twice a month because outreach is important,” said Cassity. “To see what’s going on at different universities is important, and I’ve been so impressed here.”
Cassity’s passion for jazz led her to establish “Jazz Up!,” a non-profit organization in the Chicago area to help the younger generation of jazz musicians improve to a college-level and even professional level.
“All I’ve been trying to do is raise the bar and do the best I can. That’s why I got into education,” Cassity said. “I knew that I could make a greater effect in education and reach more students. Reach more young people, and if I could get in front of them and show them what’s possible, then it would help the music … The performing and the education, everything’s a part of the music to me.”
With the 56 annual concert is at a close. Rowan University’s Jazz department begin their preparations for the 57th concert in May.
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