Heading into its 27th year, Jazz at the Sandbar continues to provide University of New Orleans Jazz Studies students an opportunity to get real-life experience performing with professional musicians in front of a live audience. Spearheaded in 1990 by Ellis Marsalis, the Program’s inaugural first Chairman, this year’s fall-performance series kicks off Wednesday, October 4 with a performance from Ellis himself. In continuation of a years-long tradition, the series is presented on Wednesday nights during the fall and spring semesters and features a different respected jazz artist each week. It also provides a medium in which students exercise their improvisational skills and gives them the rare opportunity to work with jazz masters.

The remaining fall performances are:

October 11: Singer Germaine Bazzle
October 18: Percussionist John Wooton
October 25: Trumpeter Andrew Baham
November 1: Guitarist Mike Moreno
November 8: Bassist Rufus Reid
November 15: Clarinetist James Evans

All of the concerts take place on the UNO Lakefront campus at the UNO Sandbar in the Cove on Founders Road. Running from 7-9:30p.m., all concerts come with a $5 suggested donation towards the George Brumat Scholarship Fund.  For more information, call the UNO Music Department at (504) 280-6039  or on the web, go to www.nojc.org/sandbar.