IU jazz chair Tom Walsh directs jazz ensemble at Musical Arts Center – Indiana Daily Student

Tom Walsh, a professor and chair of the jazz studies department at Jacobs School of Music, directed a jazz ensemble with Indiana University students April 6 at the Musical Arts Center. About a hundred people attended the event. 
Walsh’s prolific jazz career long preceded his time at IU. He previously presented concerts and jazz workshops all around the world, including in China, Germany and Costa Rica. He has also been featured as a player on many albums, including Lalo Schifrin’s “Intersections,” New Life Jazz Orchestra’s “Welcome To New Life” and Hugh Marsh’s “Shaking the Pumpkin.” 
Monday’s event aimed to display jazz music for the greater Bloomington community, and Walsh helped highlight the art form’s global significance as well as what makes it distinct compared to other genres of music. 
“It’s a style of music that has literally made its way around the world and has blended with other styles of music,” Walsh said. “It is continually evolving, and it is in a lot of ways, is a very creative music. We have some elements that are composed, and we have other elements that are improvised in the moment.”  
One of the pieces performed at the event, titled “Swirl Around,” exemplifies this conversational tone. Written by Christene Jensen, this piece uses different cymbal techniques, improvised trumpet and soprano saxophone solos and guitar solos at the very beginning and end of the piece, all of which work in tandem to create a dizzying effect. 
Robert Cozma conducted at the event alongside Walsh. Cozma, a teacher from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, Romania, is currently at IU as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. He arranged three pieces for the event and was a trombone soloist for one of the songs. One of the pieces he arranged, “Astromaniacs,” originates close to his family.  
“My father composed this for a project, he did with Romanian musicians and some musicians from Austria,” Cozma said. “So that’s why he called this piece ‘Astromaniacs,’ it mixes ‘astro,’ from Austria, and ‘romanics,’ from Romania.” 
“Astromaniacs” featured solo performances from IU students Sai Ramani on tenor saxophone and Zoey Thornburg on trumpet. The trumpet section also used mutes, devices players can put into the bells of their instruments to alter the sound, during this piece, which gave it an old-timey sound.  
“Hellgate” and “Out of Socket,” pieces written by John Yao, were performed at the event. They both featured a lot of grooving from the ensemble. Yao graduated from IU in 2000 and is now a professional jazz musician in New York City.  
Among the attendees were a mix of community members and friends and family of the students. After each solo, students were greeted with enthusiastic applause. Among the audience was Luke Mason, a freshman at IU.  
“My roommate, Tony Walker, is playing lead trumpet here, and I went to his concert earlier this semester,” Mason said. “He did a great job, and I’m here again to see what he can do.”  
For more information on upcoming Jacobs events, check out the Jacobs School of Music Events Calendar.  

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