St. Margaret’s School will be caught up in the midst of a new jazz age this summer.
“U-JAM is putting together this jazz camp. It’s an opportunity for people to gain instrumental and vocal experience. We hope to fuel their jazz performance skills in an environment of encouragement and fun,” said Maria Manna, the co founder of U-JAM, the Universal Jazz Advocates and Mentors Society.
The camp will run July 23 to 27 at St. Margaret’s, 1080 Lucas Ave., with the $375 cost covering sessions in a variety of topics and including lunch for each of the five days. There will also be a barbecue and final concert at the end of the camp where students will have an opportunity to perform in front of the public.
“Anybody can attend, anybody who has the passion for jazz,” said Manna, who will be one of about a dozen instructors at the camp offering lessons for vocals, saxophone, flute, clarinet, trombone, trumpet, piano, guitar, bass and drums.
This is the first time a jazz camp has been offered by U-JAM, which currently provides classes for young musicians with its Young All-Stars program and produces Jazz at the Gallery four times a year with talent from around the province at the Victoria Art Gallery. They also conduct a vocal jam night once a month at Hermann’s Jazz Club from September to June.
While jazz’s heyday may have been in the smoky clubs of the 1920s and ’30s, Manna says the popularity of jazz remains high today.
“Because of organizations like ours, we’re giving jazz more of a voice,” said Manna, a jazz vocalist and producer of Ladies of Jazz.
“We are exposing younger people to the beautiful sound of jazz. Not only to appreciate it, but to learn how to play it. I think jazz is getting more of a face today because of organizations like ours and jazz and places like Hermann’s.”
For more information or to register for the camp, visit www.u-jam.ca.
