Jazz Club brings together Grossmont students and others beyond campus every Thursday in room 26-220 for an exciting opportunity to practice and perform jazz music.
Austin Galbreath, the club’s president, said he hopes to create a welcoming environment for musicians of varying abilities to come and improve their skills with the potential to play in the club’s jams, which are hosted on the second and fourth Thursdays of every month.
At regular afternoon meetings, members come for workshops where musicians practice music and hone their skills for the club’s jams.
Galbreth said in previous semesters, many workshops had low attendance because members were eager to play songs as a whole band. As a result, the club has been playing more jams, now twice a month.
Each jam features a rotating house band, which plays a 30-minute set followed by open invitations to the audience to come and perform with other members of the club.
Jada Lagunas led Thursday’s house band on trombone and flugelhorn, along with Galbreth on piano, Silas Sick on drums, and Michaela Dolansky on bass.
Marcos Geck, a nursing major at Grossmont, said Jazz Club has been a great way to “decompress” and improve his skills as a pianist. Geck said the club is a “place to have fun,” where musicians don’t have the pressure of practicing and competing for a spot in an ensemble.
“I didn’t even know how to read a chart before I came to Jazz Club,” he said, “but when I started playing, you know, people started showing me the ropes.”
Galbreath said Geck is one of many students who come to Jazz Club from outside the Music Department. He added that the club has helped non-music majors sustain their passion for music.
“We see a lot of people who aren’t music majors that are still able to come in and interact,” Galbreth said. “Some people will stop playing music because they’re in college now, and they’re studying their major, and they don’t see a reason to continue from high school.”
Galbreath said he hopes to make the club a space for all musicians in San Diego, adding that many graduates from SDSU and UCSD have come to the club in search of community. “There’s not a whole lot of opportunities to jam in a big setting at those schools,” he said.
During Thursday’s jam, Johan Ospina, a guitarist and SDSU student, dropped by to jam after seeing an Instagram story posted by the club’s vice president, Michael McLaughlin.
Galbreath said Derek Cannon – a music instructor, department co-chair and club co-advisor – has been a major mentor to him, and he plans to do the same for Grossmont students.
“I want Derek’s job,” he said. “My dream is to come back, like after I get my master’s, to come back to Grossmont and see the Jazz Club still here being run by those students.”
In the meantime, Galbreath said he wants to nurture more band leaders who can take the initiative to put bands together, adding that he hopes there are enough leaders in the community to hold the club together until he returns to Grossmont.
Galbreath encouraged students to come to the Nov. 20 jam, which will feature both club advisors, with Canon on trumpet and Melonie Grinnell on piano.
