PERFORMING WITH THE PROS: Student jazz musicians in Princeton University’s jazz program will appear at Richardson Auditorium alongside master artists at the Princeton University Jazz Festival on April 11. This photo is from last year’s program. (Photo by Phil McAuliffe)

By Anne Levin

Unlike the music students at most American universities and conservatories, those studying jazz at Princeton University tend to be focused on pursuing other professions. But judging from the level of involvement at the upcoming Princeton University Jazz Festival, on stage at Richardson Auditorium April 11 from 1 to 10 p.m., the dedication is clearly there.

The festival lists four free, separate, hour-long performances by students, faculty, and guest artists before the day culminates with a ticketed concert by the Creative Large Ensemble, directed by trumpeter and Princeton faculty member Todd Bashore and featuring famed alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, at 8 p.m. The event is an opportunity for the local community to hear Bartz perform locally while also highlighting the collaborative spirit of the program.

“When I was in college, there were maybe eight or 10 universities with jazz programs,” said alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who directs Jazz at Princeton and started the festival in 2019. “But it’s at almost every university in America now. What’s unique about Princeton is that unlike at many other schools, almost everybody involved has no eyes on being a professional musician. Other schools have lots of music majors, but the whole music department here graduates maybe six to eight majors a year.”

Mahanthappa stressed that all of the performing ensembles are extra-curricular, receiving no credit. “They want to be there,” he said of the musicians. “They love it, and they are excited about it. I do workshops at big jazz conservatories and I feel like I have a level of excitement here that is higher. It also allows us to have larger conversations about what the music is — we talk about history and culture, playing a role in civil rights movements, the nature of improvisation — these are conversations you don’t get to have at jazz conservatories. We collaborate with other departments like Latin American Studies. Some of the guest artists have a lot to say about music and culture that is beyond just playing the music they’ve written. They inspire more expansive conversations about the meaning and the mission.”

After starting the festival the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mahanthappa got the event back on track in 2021 and has done it every year since. The post-COVID version was scaled back
from bringing in several bands to having students play with guests.

“I’ve assembled a faculty of really great players who I enjoy playing with,” he said. “It’s great group that we really didn’t have a few years ago.”

Mahanthappa has gone out of his way to create opportunities for the students to interact with guest artists, something that doesn’t always happen in other jazz programs.

“The way you learn this music is by getting together with musicians who are older. It’s an oral tradition passed down,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that the guest artists come here many times, and really interact with the many levels of the music department. So it’s not just rehearsing with the band. There are opportunities for them to hang out, go to dinner, share stories. I was already doing these guest artist residencies, and the festival was kind of an expansion of that. Now, almost every student gets to play with the guest, and that has become the festival.”

A composer as well as an acclaimed jazz musician, Mahanthappa grew up in Boulder, Colo., in a family of scientists. He started playing saxophone in the fourth grade. “My older brother, who played clarinet, told me the kids in the jazz band were having more fun,” he said. “I had played recorder so I could already read music. I eventually had to choose between music and abstract math. The fire to play music was burning stronger, and I went to music school.”

For a full list of performances and additional information, visit music.princeton.edu.