Led by its newly appointed artistic director Courtney D. Jones, FAU’s Jazz Band performed its first concert of the season to a packed crowd.

For his directorial debut at FAU, Jones, who has a doctorate in trumpet performance and pedagogy from the University of California Los Angeles, selected pieces he believed to be big band jazz standards and named the concert “Back to Basics.”

“I chose this title, one, to introduce myself to the students and two, to see where they are, to see what we can do going forward,” Jones said.

The band played a series of jazz classics from the ’20s to ’50s during the concert, which was held on Nov. 2 in the University Theatre.

Starting off with “Basie Power” by Ernie Wilkins, they continued on with other pieces from the Count Basie Orchestra, as well as tunes from Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Frank Foster and other notable jazz composers.

“In order to know where we are going, we need to understand where we came from. And what better way to do that then to play big band music… to showcase, when music was music,” Jones said to the cheers of a predominantly older audience.

Boca Raton resident Patrick Toomey, 84, is a frequent patron of the university’s musical ensembles and was struck by the youth and talent of the Jazz Band members.

“Some of the other concerts have a mixture of students and older players, this is all students and it was terrific. They were really good,” Toomey said.

After being appointed as FAU’s Assistant Professor of Trumpet, Jones was also surprised when he first met the jazz ensemble.

“I was very excited and in awe of the fact we have a plethora of kids from very diverse backgrounds musically… who are very interested in this type of music [and willing] to understand this language,” Jones said.

The feeling among the band members was mutual, they had to get used to Jones — a certified Yamaha performing artist. With his colorful tailored suits, petite handlebar mustache and a tendency to use exaggerated arm movements when instructing, he is a charismatic teacher.

“Obviously, he’s a character,” said 23-year-old graduate student Daniel Meier. I would tell [people] about him and I could see they were skeptical, but then seeing their faces when they actually met him and he just lights up the room.”

Meier, who plays trumpet in the band, transferred from the University of Northern Iowa to continue his trumpet performance studies under Jones.

“He has a way with his words and emotions, like no other director I’ve ever seen… It definitely makes him stand out,” said Cristian Rodriguez, a commercial music sophomore.

Rodriguez, along with Miguel McKenzie Jr. and Jorge Sebastian, all played simultaneously on one drum set during the concert’s energetic encore performance of “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prima — capping off the evening on an exciting note.

Jones is now looking to the future of the university’s jazz band.

“One of the plans I have for this school [is] to have this ensemble be a good training ground for the 21st century musician,” Jones said. “My goal is to turn them into the best musician they can possibly be in their particular area, playing on their particular instrument.”

Sofya Perrin is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].