Marshall brings Jazz Night to the Press Club

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Danite Belay

Jazz studies majors Lars Swanson, Hogan Bentle and Cody Henley were the trio that performed a repertoire, plays or pieces of music that a musician has learned.

Danite Belay, Reporter

The sounds of the saxophone, drums and bass were the center of attention Wednesday night at the second Marshall Jazz Night at the Press Club.

Jazz studies majors Lars Swanson, Hogan Bentle and Cody Henley were the trio that performed a repertoire, plays or pieces of music that a musician has learned. Swanson, bassist, said the trio is not technically a group, but since they’ve been playing together at Marshall Jazz Night, they are slowly morphing into one.

A lot of the things that happen with jazz groups is that a bunch of people come together and just play a collected repertoire that doesn’t really require a rehearsal because the people just know the tunes,” Swanson said. “We’ll start to develop our own repertoire, start to develop our own arrangements of things.”

Swanson said he plans to see involvement from both the School of Music at Marshall and members of the area.

“We would like to do this in two sets,” Swanson said. “The first set featuring us, and the second set as a jam session for the community, and for the other students at Marshall who are jazz studies majors or who have an interest in jazz who also play.”

Bentle, drummer, said he thinks events like this will open the door for students to experience new music.

“Jazz a lot of the time has a negative stigma attached to it, but Jazz is just as expansive as an art form as other genres,” Bentle said. “Jazz expands from the 1920s all the way up to modern times. Listening to one form of jazz and maybe not getting along with it so well, doesn’t mean that you might not like a different form of jazz, and I would recommend anybody to give it a try.”

Marshall Jazz Night will continue every Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Press Club.

Danite Belay can be contacted at [email protected].