By all rights, campus should be quiet on a Monday night as midterm season approaches, but instead, Kerckhoff Coffee House is loud and lively as the three-piece band Love Potion finishes up a set of jazz and funk, drawing on sources as diverse as 50 Cent and Bach. The musicians are this week’s performers on the Cultural Affairs Commission’s Monday Night Jazz Series.
The concerts, which take place from 7 to 9 p.m. every Monday, provide students with live music in a casual atmosphere in a central location on campus. The Monday Night Jazz Series has been happening for years, but the band Love Potion and its eclectic brand of funk and jazz was formed just a week before by student musicians Bryce Wilson, Chris Bastian and Colin Gordon. These musicians have performed at Kerckhoff for years, and for this performance, they decided to try something new. This is typical of the Monday Night Jazz Series, which has a friendly and low-key environment that lends itself to experimentation.
“It’s not impossible to get the audience to listen, but it’s not like a concert where there’s rapt attention, which could be more pressure,” said Bastian, a fifth-year philosophy student and bassist. “It’s a nice middle ground, and I enjoy being able to try new things and see the audience react.”
The music at Monday Night Jazz is often experimental and draws from a wide range of genres, as exemplified by bassist Charlie Domingo, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student who has been performing at Kerckhoff for years. Domingo incorporates both electronics and a live band into his performances and sees the concerts as a great opportunity for UCLA musicians.
“There’s not a lot a places, especially in L.A., to play jazz music, and it’s nice to not have to go anywhere; you’re still on campus,” Domingo said. “You can put together a legit show, and you can pretty much always count on people being there and enjoying your stuff.”
For Bastian, this freedom is crucial to his approach to music.
“When you make a mistake in jazz, it can be your best moment. … There’s not a strict regiment of what I’m supposed to be doing in every bar,” Bastian said. “We can play a 12-bar form, that you could write out on half a sheet of paper, play that for 40 minutes, and that’s all we need in a jazz group.”
At tonight’s show, Ryan Mahlstedt’s band Geology of Ornithology Collective will play a set of funk-inspired jazz. Fifth week, Love Potion will take the stage again and the following week the student trio Pangolin will be featured.
Maaria Bajwa, a third-year business economics and English student, organizes the concert series. She says that musicians are often recruited by word-of-mouth and form spur-of-the-moment collaborations like Love Potion.
“It’s a really great way to get UCLA musicians seen and heard,” Bajwa said. “The only problem is that not a lot people know that it happens every Monday.”
In addition to the weekly concerts, the commission puts on two large jazz events during the year: Valentine’s Night and New Orleans Night. Valentine’s Night will be held on Feb. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Kerckhoff Grand Salon, accompanied by live big band and vocal music.
Monday Night Jazz Series is also collaborating with UCLA radio, and all of its performances are now streamed on the UCLA Radio Web site.
Students who go to Kerckhoff on Monday won’t be able to predict the style of music they’ll hear, but they know that they will hear something unconventional and dynamic from their fellow students.
“Some people keep it really simple, some people go way out, as little or as much as you want, but it’s always a really cool opportunity,” Domingo said. “There’s a lot of good talent coming out of this place.”