Ensembles

UC Jazz offers numerous types of ensembles for a variety of skill levels, styles, and instrumentations. For audition information, read our Join Page.

Fall 2025 Schedule

    • Ted Moore Advanced: Monday 11am-1pm
    • Frank Martin Advanced: Monday 7pm-9pm
    • Dann Zinn Advanced: Thursday 3:30pm-5:30pm
    • World Music Ensemble (Kai Eckhardt): Wednesday 12pm-2pm
    • Glenn Richman Intermediate: Monday 1pm-3pm
    • Ted Moore Intermediate: Tuesday 1pm-3pm
    • UC Jazz Big Band (Marty Wehner): Wednesday 7pm-9pm
    • Alumni Big Band: Tuesday 8pm-10pm
    • Chris He Beginning: Monday 5pm-7pm
    • Ryan Campbell Beginning: Tuesday 6pm-8pm
    • Ryan Ancheta Beginning: Wednesday 5pm-7pm
    • Evan Odell Beginning: Thursday 7pm-9pm
    • Peter Le Beginning: Friday 3pm-5pm

Beginning Combos

Beginning Combos are student taught ensembles which are intended for students who want to learn jazz, but have limited experience or come from different musical backgrounds. Beginning combos typically consist of weekly rehearsals culminating in an end of semester concert.

While prior jazz experience is preferred, Beginning Combos are typically open to students who demonstrate basic musical proficiency on their instrument of choice during their audition. Beginning Combos involve listening assignments, performance, history, theory, and composition, with a focus on providing a foundational understanding of jazz for its members. Participating in a Beginning Combo is a great way to build basic jazz improvisational skills, meet other aspiring musicians, and prepare for higher level ensembles in the future.

Intermediate Combos

Intermediate combos build on improvisation skills and focus on standard repertoire such as “On Green Dolphin Street”, “Confirmation”, and “All the Things You Are”. These musicians should have a good facility on their instruments and know the fundamentals of jazz harmony, including diatonic modes and common chord progressions. They should understand the swing feel and be able to improvise over forms such as the twelve-bar blues. These students have usually participated in high school or college groups. Intermediate Combos typically perform in a mid-semester "Noon Concert", as well as an End of Semester Concert, but occasionally perform at other events.

Advanced Combos

Advanced combos consist of the top players in UC Jazz Ensembles, with highly restricted placement. The advanced combos perform challenging jazz standards, contemporary material, and original student compositions. Advanced musicians should have a thorough understanding of bebop and contemporary improvisation styles, and a familiarity with the musical languages of musicians like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Bill Evans. Students should know diatonic and non-diatonic jazz harmonic theory and have memorized several jazz standards. They should have technical fluency on their instrument and possess advanced jazz musicianship skills such as sight-reading, transposition, odd-meter playing, and pitch/chord recognition. Advanced combos frequently perform at highly visible venues on and off campus and perform biannually at our end of semester concerts at Hertz Hall and the Freight and Salvage Theater.

World Music Ensemble

In Fall of 2022, UC Jazz began offering a brand new ensemble called the World Music Ensemble. It is taught by world-renown bassist, Kai Eckhardt, who is highly qualified to teach this ensemble following years of travelling the world and playing and recording with great artists like guitarist John McLaughlin. The ensemble is improv based but outside the usual traditional jazz vocabulary and styles. We hope to attract instrumentalists of varying cultures, especially who play instruments not normally associated with jazz and to collect a unique ensemble of players intent on sharing ideas from various cultures and styles. Repertoire will depend on instrumentation and will be very flexible.

UC Jazz Big Band

The UC Jazz Big Band is a 17 member ensemble dedicated to performing traditional and contemporary big band repertoire. This ensemble is currently directed by professional trombone player and educator Marty Wehner, and typically performs in 1-2 concerts per semester. Due to the larger size of the ensemble, it includes musicians of a wide range of skill levels, and may be more accessible to students less experienced in improvisation, though prior jazz experience is preferred.

Independent Combos

UC Jazz Students sometimes have the opportunity to create their own student run ensembles within UC Jazz. For example, we have currently have a combo dedicated to performing video game music, and recently had a combo which focused on the music of Japanese fusion group Casiopea. Due to their student run nature, the independent combos available typically change each semester. Placement in these combos is determined by the students leading them.

Cal Alumni Big Band

The Cal Alumni Big Band was established in 1980 with the intent of providing Cal grads and alumni of the Jazz Ensembles an outlet for playing big band music after leaving UC Berkeley. The band is open to talented musicians from all over the Bay Area but traditionally the vast majority of players are Cal grads. The big band is managed by Sam Lind. If you are interested in sitting in or joining, contact Ted Moore or Sam Lind.