37th annual Carolina Jazz Festival jams in Chapel Hill this week

While basketball fans and warm weather lovers will enjoy this week, music buffs are also in for a treat.

The 37th annual Carolina Jazz Festival will start today and go throughout the week.

While the festival has been around for 37 years, this year will feature fresh new talent as well as one of the biggest names in jazz music — The Wayne Shorter Quartet.

The festival kicks off today with a performance from the UNC Faculty Jazz Ensemble.

UNC music professor Jim Ketch, who is also the director and founder of the festival, said this year’s events are unique because they bring together seasoned musicians, those who have more recently started their professional careers and students from UNC and local high schools.

“The jazz festival preserves the past, honors the present and looks forward to the future,” Ketch said.

The event also acts as a learning tool for musicians. Artists-in-residence Rahsaan and Roland Barber have been working with musicians in preparation for the festival, and there will also be a workshop conducted as part of the program’s events.

“They do concerts together, they do coaching with us and they adjudicate high schools for us. It’s so important for these young kids because they get to see what a young professional is doing,” Ketch said.

Senior music major Brian Braytenbah has been involved with jazz music since middle school and will participate in his fourth and final jazz festival this week. He said he appreciates the interactions he’s had with the artists-in-residence.

“We’re especially excited for our two artists in residence, Rahsaan and Roland Barber,” Braytenbah said. “They’re a great pair of musicians.”

Another educational component of the festival is a lecture on Saturday, which will be given by University of Kansas professor Sherrie Tucker.

In years past, the festival has drawn crowds of all ages and from multiple areas. Ketch said he expects a similar showing this year.

“We like to think of it as a North Carolina event,” he said.

“On Friday night after the Wayne Shorter concert, we’re going to have a jam session at the West End Wine Bar, and in years past there have been probably about five or six different colleges represented at that jam session. Some high school kids come out and play a little bit, too.”

UNC professor Stephen Anderson said he is excited for this year’s event, but added that every year is just as good as the others, thanks to Ketch’s excellent planning.

“He is just a force on campus,” Anderson said.

“He’s great at raising funds and just putting big events together, and he’s done it successfully for so many years that I don’t know that he can do any better.”

Braytenbah, who plays the baritone saxophone, will perform during the festival as well. He said the event is a good way to heighten UNC students’s awareness about jazz music.

“I think it’s great to be promoting music on campus and the arts,” he said.

“Especially jazz music because it’s a great American tradition.”

arts@dailytarheel.com