By Abigail Carew

As students walk into the jam session they are able to play in unison alongside others, producing a musical blend of different instruments together. One of the ways York brings people together is through music. From students participating in campus showcases to showing off their improvisation skills, music is the language that almost everyone can connect on. 

On nearly every Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m, Professor Tom Zlabinger from the Department of Performing and Fine Arts oversees the community jam sessions in the lower-level music dojo of York’s Academic Core Building.

The sessions started in 2017 and were made to be a fun space for people to meet each other and play music together. Inclusivity is a major part of what makes the sessions what they are.

When the sessions first began, there were a lot of jazz students who mainly jammed before and after rehearsals. But there was also a mix of non-jazz students who jammed first and wrote the music afterwards.

Zlabinger said that what happens during the sessions are based on a “reflection of who’s in the room” because the students determine how the music sounds. You can have a “jazz player next to a gospel player” and the result is that the “music emerges” from it. The inclusivity is not just in the students, but also in the instruments they use. The dojo has a setup of “traditional instruments such as bass, guitar and drums.” But other instruments have been used including trombone and accordion just to name a few.

Students can be very experimental and play any genre of music whether it is classical, rock, or even play genres that they’ve never played before. Darrien Davis, a sophomore, has been playing the trombone for seven years and was a part of a nonprofit community marching band called the Elite Marching Band for four years before showing up to the jam sessions that Professor Zlabinger invited him to join.

Davis was part of the brass band which played songs coming from the genres of R&B, soul and funk. But during the sessions he got to play genres that were different from what he was used to playing. “They usually give me a different perspective on music and the people who I really get to interact with,” said Davis.

Musicians learn how to follow people when playing music and incorporate their own abilities without having to play one thing all the time. This approach allows students to experiment with what they play. Zlabinger said that he gets worried about people having an idea on the skills and abilities they think they need to have in order to be considered as a musician.

Zlabinger works to dispel the many myths that younger musicians sometimes believe about becoming a professional musician. “Many people think that you have to be an accomplished player, that you have to be someone who reads music, that you have to be someone who’s played for 10 years. But you don’t have to have done all that. Any instrument, any voice, any level, any experience is welcome.”

These community sessions have also allowed students to become confident players. Bass guitarist Ajanee Smith played in bands for about three years and playing the bass guitar for four years. The band that he’s currently in is a blues band called “Dangerously Careful” which recently did a show at a music venue called Bar Freda in Ridgewood.

After being inspired by the radio to pursue music and hearing about the jam session through York’s music club, he showed up to his first session. Smith said he felt “scared because there were so many better musicians than me at the time, and I didn’t know how to jam. But what really made me want to do it was just my urge to get better.” 

A musician who plays for the first time with new people can face some initial struggles. “Sometimes it isn’t easy, especially if there’s a large skill gap,” Ajanee said. “If you are open to everybody’s opinions on the art that is music, then it’s not that bad.”

Not only do musicians get better at playing, but they also encourage people to play instruments too. Ajanee recalls getting one of his friends, who has never played instruments before to play the bass guitar during a jam session.  “He sounded pretty good, and he ended up picking up the guitar because of one of the jam sessions,” said Ajanee.  

A lot of the alumni who have gone on to become musicians on their own have come back to see current students. An alumni pizza party was held on Sept. 15 by Zlabinger, where former students came to talk about their love of music and what they’ve been up to as musicians. Later that evening, a concert was held in the dojo filled with current students and alumni, watching some of the alumni give musical performances. Zlabinger said that when alumni students come back to the jam sessions, “it helps our current students validate what they’re doing” and “it creates a network of people in New York City.”

The community jam sessions heavily rely on improvisation. Zlabinger said that when musicians improvise, they realize what they have and don’t have in order to play the music. Zlabinger said that “You also learn to navigate with others because you’re not playing from a score or a chart. If there’s “someone who wants to play this beat, we follow that beat, if we have someone who wants to play this chord progression, we follow that chord progression.”

Zlabinger said he wants “musicians to be more comfortable with themselves” as they come to the jam sessions. Everyone that attends is welcome to express their creativity. To the community it brings more togetherness within people because with music, Zlabinger said that the “possibilities for joy and discovery are limitless.”