Second Mondays, starting Monday, September 11th, Bird & Beckett will be hosting a jam session for the incoming class of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s brand new jazz BMUS (Bachelor of Music) degree program.

The SFCM’s program is called “Roots, Jazz & American Music” and its first group of thirteen young students, drawn from all over the country, just arrived in town a couple weeks ago.  They’re on a four-year track towards a jazz bachelor’s degree that will ground them in the African roots of the music and take them through its full development and flowering as America’s most truly original musical genre.

The RJAM program is directed by new Glen Park neighbor Simon Rowe. Simon is a jazz pianist who hails from Australia, spent a long stretch in St. Louis learning the music from legendary jazz musicians there, and spent the five years through 2016 directing the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music in Dave Brubeck’s hometown, Stockton, California. He’s devoted to educating the youngsters in this magnificent music and in establishing deep community roots for the program here in San Francisco. What better community can nurture that than Glen Park and Bird & Beckett?! Read more about Simon here, on SFCM’s website, and explore the site while you’re there for more about the program, the students, and the incredible faculty they’ll be working with!

The RJAM program at SFCM is partnered with the SFJAZZ Center and its resident ensemble, the SFJAZZ Collective. SFJAZZ education director Rebecca Mauleon and members of the Collective all teach in the RJAM program, giving the students the incredible opportunity to perform in multiple venues in the Bay Area, and to collaborate and learn from some of the top jazz artists on the concert circuit today.

This is the first Bird & Beckett jam session of the school year, so come down to Bird & Beckett Monday the 11th to hear some great youngsters, already demonstrating fantastic talent through their high school years, as they continue to discover, develop & fully realize their abilities and the joys the music offers!

RJAM auditions for the incoming 2017 class