As a style of music, jazz has always adapted to differing
environments in a chameleon-esque way, with its influence
permeating many genres. It should come as little surprise, then,
that RoboCop and Dr. Ian Malcolm of “Jurassic Park”
once played in a jazz band together.
The group in question is the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, whose
members have included the alter-egos of the above characters,
played by actors Peter Weller and Jeff Goldblum, respectively. The
Orchestra will visit UCLA tonight at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff Grand
Salon, with free admission and refreshments provided.
“It’s always fun to play for a younger crowd, not to
mention one that is likely very smart and receptive,” said
Peter Harris, guitarist and founding member of the Orchestra.
“We don’t do this for the money but because we think
it’s fun. We’re not trying to sell CDs.”
The group was born when Harris met Weller and the two became
friends, partly through their shared love of music. As they began
to play gigs, Weller mentioned that Goldblum, whom he had worked
with on “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th
Dimension,” played jazz piano. After Goldblum began
performing with the group, Weller left to study art in Italy while
Goldblum and Harris stayed on. At this point, the project still
didn’t have an official name.
“One time someone asked Jeff what the name of the group
was, and he said “˜Mildred Snitzer,’ which was the name
of a 90-year-old woman he knew from his hometown of
Pittsburgh,” Harris said.
UCLA presents a different environment for the group, which
typically plays in small clubs and bars in the Beverly Hills area.
The impetus to get the group a gig at UCLA came when Alisha Flecky,
a third-year global studies student and member of the Student
Committee for the Arts, saw one of the group’s shows.
“I thought that (their brand of) jazz was really good and
that the name of Jeff Goldblum would get students to come to an
event that they wouldn’t normally go to,” Flecky said.
“Opportunities like this arise because of our location in Los
Angeles, so we’re lucky to have the chance to make this
happen.”
For Flecky, an additional motivation in bringing the Orchestra
to UCLA was to give a student jazz group a valuable chance to play
with the musicians, not only to help enrich these student
musicians’ careers, but also to give spectators a chance to
see their peers perform with a professional band.
One of the students who will perform is Hitomi Oba, a
fourth-year ethnomusicology student who plays the saxophone.
“I’ve never heard (The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra)
play, so it should be interesting,” Oba said. “It
sounds like a cool gig, and I hope it opens up more doors for a
jazz audience.”
Along this same measure, one of the main goals of the event,
Flecky said, is to get students who wouldn’t normally listen
to jazz or go to a jazz show to come and check out the music,
whether they come because they want free food or simply because
they want to see a famous actor playing the piano.
“There’s really no other motivation for having so
many things be free at an event while spending so much money to put
it on other than to get people to come who normally wouldn’t
listen to jazz,” Flecky said. “It’s one thing to
have a jazz concert and get jazz fans to come, but then to top it
off with something like Jeff Goldblum, suddenly everyone who saw
“˜Jurassic Park’ or “˜The Life Aquatic’ is
going to want to come.”
The members of the Orchestra also benefit from having instant
name recognition among both fans of jazz and those who simply see a
lot of movies.
“Jeff’s presence sometimes makes people more
receptive to listening, so it gives us the cover to play what we
want,” Harris said. “We feel very free up there, like
we don’t have to worry about things as much.”
Another aspect of live jazz that the Orchestra incorporates is
the participatory nature of jazz shows. At many of its shows, the
Orchestra invites members of the audience onstage to sit in and
sing.
“It’s all part of having the audience be a
participant rather than an observer,” Harris said. “We
like to be inviting and to have people be a part of (our
music).”
Ultimately, everyone involved expects the show to be a
worthwhile expression of student and professional jazz.
“I’m really looking forward to playing, because this
seems like the sort of event that will attract students who
aren’t avid jazz listeners, so it will be cool to have a
different kind of audience,” Oba said.
Flecky said she hopes tonight’s show, beyond convincing
those who attend to get up and dance to good jazz music, will leave
a more lasting impression.
“Hopefully, people from all different walks of the UCLA
campus will show up … and (gain) a new understanding and
appreciation of jazz music,” Flecky said.