'Jazzy' Jeff's Sunday jam

Those of you who love jazz should free your Sunday night calendars until the end of March, as The Tucson Jazz Society has reinstated their Sunday Jazz Jams after a 12-year hiatus.

Sunday at the Cottonwood Club at the Cottonwood Cafe (60 N. Alvernon Way), UA jazz director Jeffrey Haskell will be playing piano with his Jeff Haskell Quartet, which also includes a bassist, drummer and a saxophonist. The quartet will "be playing a mix of 'straight-ahead' music, which basically means mainstream - whatever that means," Haskell says.

While the bassist is not in place yet, Haskell is unaffected. He maintains that in jazz literature, there is a commonality that allows players who have practiced relatively little together to play well as a group. Jazz speaks to all players in the same language; with a lead sheet and some skillful improvisation (the key to jazz), a good concert is in the bag.

If you're thinking Haskell is a zoot suit-wearin' young punk, think again. While no longer a spring chicken, when the longtime faculty member sits down at a piano (no zoot suit in sight), his fingers lithely dance over the keyboard with a youthful inspiration. Raucous tunes as well as tender ballads flow from his fingertips with a mastery obtained only through years of practice and a true love of music.

Haskell has been playing jazz since grade school, dabbling in many instruments, but settling on the piano. He is all for the return of the Sunday Jazz Jams - "Jam sessions are the way music is taught and literature is shared," he says.

Haskell and his band are the "core band" that will play the first and last sets Sunday evening. Sandwiched between the "core group" performances will be two sets of open jams. According to Yvonne Ervin, the executive director for the Tucson Jazz Society, the open jams have been joined mostly by people "from 18- to 30-years of age," although they're always hoping for a diverse group of all ages. These jams are open to anyone and everyone with an instrument who wants to play a little improvisational music.

There will be a certain amount of structure during the jams, though; one member from the core group will always be on stage to keep the music moving.

The weekly Sunday Jazz Jams were closed down about 12 years ago, because the Doubletree Hotel, the location of the first incarnation of the series, closed its bar and the Jazz Society started putting on other concerts. They were recently brought back, Ervin says, because "it gives young players a place to play, jam and grow as musicians."

Admission to the Sunday Jazz Jams is $2 for Tucson Jazz Society members and $4 for

everyone else. There's a one drink minimum and musicians who come to jam are admitted free. The music starts at 7 p.m. and ends roughly around 11.

The Tucson Jazz Society is a non-profit corporation founded in 1977. Information on the Sunday Jazz Jams and other jazz events occurring in Tucson can be found on the 24-hour Jazz Hot line: 743-3399.