By O’Connor Daniel | Reporter
Jones Concert Hall came to life with the first notes of Baylor’s fall jazz ensemble season at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The show was comprised of music majors and majors from across the campus, led by Alex Parker, the director of the Wayne Fisher Jazz Ensemble. The group performed a spirited set featuring American jazz composers Jeff Jarvis, Pete McGuinness and Bob Florence.
Parker introduced each number with signature flair. Before the band broke into “The Sunday Morning Shuffle,” he told the crowd, “We’re gonna take you to church.” Heads nodded and toes tapped as a warm swing filled the space. It was almost as if for a moment in time, students and faculty seemed to forget about upcoming midterms, parking tickets and unread emails.
Later in the program, Elma, Wash., senior vocalist Sara Burkhart took the spotlight for “Only You,” composed by jazz musician and composer Bob Florence. Her voice swayed over the ensemble like a torch-lit serenade in a film noir‑style café with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
Among the musicians on stage was Fulshear freshman trombonist Noah Heslep, a physics and secondary music double major. Heslep said he played the trombone since sixth grade, and for him, jazz is more than just notes on a page.
“When you’re in the moment, you just go,” he said. “It’s a lot of listening — to the moment, to the past, to what the genre has to say. And then you just speak,” he said.
He added that a common misconception is that only the soloist is improvising — but really, it’s the whole rhythm section playing together in real time, responding and creating. It’s more than music. It’s a conversation.
“Everyone’s creating together,” he said. “It’s not chaos — it’s controlled expression.”
Heslep said the creative process behind improvisation is much like speaking a language.
“The improvisation is just like you’re creating a melody over the core progression from the rhythm section,” he said. “They’re laying down the harmony for you, and you stand up there using your vocabulary. We speak English — improvisers speak jazz. They speak the licks they grew up with. So they’re telling their story just as much as I’m telling you mine right now.”
Fulshear freshman Molly Firor came to support Heslep and stayed for the entire show — her first full jazz concert at Baylor.
“I find that, for me personally, music is a great way to unwind,” Firor said. “Coming here and being able to put down my books and just listen — it was an amazing break.”
For Heslep, that break becomes something bigger when he’s on stage.
“I was talking with one of my friends, and I said today just felt like such a gloom,” Heslep said. “For whatever reason, whatever people said, whatever happened — it was a gloom. But I get on the stage, and I can leave that all behind. That’s where the lights shine. That’s where the magic happens.”
