The sounds of jazz will be floating through downtown Santa Barbara Thursday night. But, you won’t know the songs. It’s brand new music created by students using some works at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art as inspiration.
Grammy Award winning composer and musician Ted Nash is leading the collaboration between the Santa Barbara City College Summer Jazz Program, and the Museum of Art.
"We have people from all ages here, exploring something which is extremely personal," said Nash. "It's how to express yourself using music. Ultimately we use music to express the way we think and we feel."
Nash said the performance is going to be about 15 brand new pieces developed in the last week.
The music is based on works in the museum’s exhibition A Legacy of Giving: The Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree Collection.
It’s mostly 19th century French and British paintings. "Each (musical) piece is based on a different paint, or artwork that's in the museum," said Nash.
The Museum’s Director of Education, Patsy Hicks, talks about the unique art and music collaboration. "It's a conversation between two art forms," said Hicks. She said they share a vocabulary, things like pattern, and rhythm, and tone.
The students in the program range from middle school students to senior citizens.
"I started on cello, so I'm mostly classically trained, I guess. So, I wanted to learn more about jazz. It's (the program is) really cool," said Solei Seifert. The 16-year-old plays the standup base.
The collaboration is being in held conjunction with Santa Barbara City College’s Summer Jazz Program.
"We're all wanting to learn more about music," said Andrew Martinez. who is Program Director. "We want to lean more about jazz. The best way is to be with other other musicians, and share that knowledge." The collaboration with the museum takes about a week out of the several week long summer jazz program.
Some of the students in the project composed the songs, and then during rehearsals everyone throws in their two cents to tweak them.
Nash said what the audience will experience is a taste of new works in progress. He cautions people that they shouldn't expect a slick, polished concert, but an insight into musical works in the middle of development.
You can experience the new music at the free concert in downtown Santa Barbara. It takes place at 5:30 Thursday night, on the Front Terrace of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
