UW-Madison Jazz Studies

04/25/2025

Join us this afternoon (Fri, 4/25), 4-5:30 pm at the Rathskeller in UW's Memorial Union (800 Langdon St) for a free show by the UW Jazz Orchestra! The UWJO will play music by a who-is-who of living big band composers, including Alan Ferber, John Fedchock, John Clayton, Patti Darling, Dave Holland, and Humberto Ramirez, alongside modern classics by Bob Brookmeyer and Thad Jones, as well as music from the videogame Cuphead.

03/13/2025

We're in the middle of a fantastic guest residency by trumpet great Terell Stafford! Please join us for our concerts with him on Thursday, 3/13 (Contemporary Jazz Ensemble and Graduate Student Quintet) and 3/14 (Faculty Jazz Quartet and UW Jazz Orchestra). Details in comments.

03/12/2025

Baritone saxophonist, ethnomusicologist, author and Bucknell University Professor Ben Barson performing with the UW Blue Note Ensemble

04/30/2024

Professor Les Thimmig, who taught at UW–Madison for over 50 years, died April 28, 2024.

03/15/2024

Live-stream (and archived performance), UW Blue Note Ensembles and Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble at Tandem Press, March 15, 2024

UW-Madison Tandem Press and UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music’s Jazz Studies Program are pleased to present the Tandem Press Friday Jazz Series.This per...

03/05/2024

Job Summary: The Mead Witter School of Music seeks an accomplished Jazz / Black American music saxophone artist-teacher to join its growing jazz area. The initial appointment for this full-time, non-tenure track position is for one academic year, with the possibility of renewal. This position could....

02/21/2024

12/14/2023

Our fall semester wraps up with the UW Blue Note Ensemble performing the music of Wayne Shorter at Cafe CODA. Wishing everyone a great break; we're looking forward to seeing you in the spring semester!

09/08/2023

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Emeritus Richard Davis. Prof. Davis played key roles on thousands of classic albums and in 2014 was named an NEA Jazz Master, this country's highest honor recognizing great achievements in jazz. His many year collaborations with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and with Sarah Vaughan, his ground breaking work with Eric Dolphy, and being among the first Black musicians to join the CBS studio orchestra are just a few of the myriad career highlights that informed his teaching at UW, where over several decades of individual bass instruction, in his Black Music Ensemble and in his Black Music History he mentored and left an indelible impact on thousands of UW students.

Renowned jazz musician Richard Davis passed away yesterday at the age of ninety-three after spending several years in hospice care, his daughter Persia Davis confirmed to WORT today. Richard Davis […]

02/14/2023

Take note! Our official "UW Jazz In and Out List, 2023" just dropped:
In: Jerome Kern
Out: Cole Porter
In: D-flat major
Out: D-flat minor
In: "Africa/Brass"
Out: "Crescent"
In: collective improv
Out: solos
In: Ballads
Out: 7/4
In: player piano rolls
Out: wax cylinders
In: still being awake at 4
Out: already being awake at 4
In: rests
Out: triplets
In: soundscapes
Out: telling a story
In: 442
Out: tuning to the piano
In: piano
Also, out: piano
In: reviewers
Out: critics
In: soundscapes
Out: telling a story
In: preamps
Out: ribbon mics
In: Wardell Gray
Out: Dexter Gordon
In: polyrhythms
Out: dynamics
In: common-tone diminished chords
Out: tritone substitution