Tom Erdmann, reporter

The ubiquitous ITG evening jazz jam has become a habit in more ways than one. It's populated, each night of the conference up to this point, by a small group of die-hard souls who braved what has become de-rigor for the northeast this year, rain-rain-rain with a great accompaniment of thunder. Only jazzers and those who can't live without the warm satisfying sounds of it's inflection would come out on such an evening, and the same was true tonight as well.

This is truly a different era. Back in the day, when jam sessions were thriving, young artists learned and honed their craft in a room full of young artists cutting their teeth with an old master or two showing the way. Now-a-days only the brave and or well-schooled dare to put themselves into the pit of fire and expose their ability, not to mention their soul, to a room full of true aficionados - not to mention the other brave and well-schooled artists looking for their chance to play. It's true jazz makes up less than two percent of all recorded sales in America, but you wouldn't know it from the excitement level by all present.

The evening's host, Matt Schulman, was a genial leader who kept things moving and made sure the evening didn't turn into a higher, louder, faster slug-fest. With the emphasis on musicality, Shulman's own opening solos were brilliant. His wide vibrato on I Thought About You, with so many extra notes mixed into the melody to make it almost unrecognizable yet at the same time making the tune his own, filled the room with not just awe, but many nods of approval. His following bebop foray was equally impressive.

While it would be impossible to list all of the trumpeters who came forward with their harmonic and melodic concepts, not to mention tonal effervescence, and come they did, some of the more early notable soloists included trumpeter Pat Harbison and saxophonist and Rowan faculty member Denis DiBlasio. Their single performance together was the stuff of which live recordings should be made. All stop-time choruses should be so eloquent. It's too bad not everyone has learned the lesson of real jazz - it's all about communicating in the moment with your fellow artists in a symbiosis of real-time thought and interplay. These two stalwarts upheld the banner of what all should learn, and it was brilliant.

Former ITG Jazz Improvisation Solo winner Philip Dizack displayed that he is an artist well versed in the modern harmonic and post-Lee Morgan tradition. Trent Austin, the host of Tuesday night's jam session joined in the fun and ripped out some thoughtful harmonic concepts as well.

The crowd was suitably impressed and most appreciative of Chuck Tumlinson's choruses. His display of technique, with equal parts emotion, is rare in jazz today. Joining Tumlinson on Joe Henderson's “Recordame” were Frank Campos and Jamey Simmons. Each of the three artists worked in shifting shades of contrast playing off of and with the ideas of each other. Exciting and interesting doesn't begin to describe these three young artists each deserving of wider recognition for their talent and harmonic prowess.

Special kudos to the Rowan University faculty combo…from one pianist to another, it's a truly thankless job to spend an entire evening playing back-up to artists you've never worked with, and to not know the pleasure of more than one or two solos.

The closer, a rhythm changes tour-de-force, was the Sonny Rollins standard Oleo. The 12-key treatment, a standard for any aspiring artist to emulate, was astounding. Each soloist got the next successive key in what turned into a round-robin of daring tightrope walking and serious fun. Bravo to all!