The next East Meets West Jazz Jam Session, a collaboration of East End Jazz and the Southampton Cultural Center, happens on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the cultural center, featuring a performance by the Ludmilla Brazil Trio.
The free monthly session is an opportunity for musicians, music lovers, and their friends and families to embrace the medium’s in-the-moment spontaneity.
The afternoon will begin with a 35-minute performance by the trio, which features the singing of Ludmilla, Marcello Pimenta on guitar, and John Ludlow on saxophone, for “a nice spin on bringing the heat of the Southern Hemisphere to Southampton,” said Iris Ornig, the director of East End Jazz and a bassist and composer.
A jam session, which Ms. Ornig emphasized is open to those of all skill levels, will follow. “It’s low-key,” she said. “I have a sign-up list. I offer the people — audience and musicians — a beverage and snacks.”
It is also important to Ms. Ornig that it be free. “Everybody is welcome,” she said. “What makes me a little sad is that some events are so expensive, even I pass on them.”
After arriving in New York City from her native Germany to study music, Ms. Ornig was “blown away” by the city’s jazz scene, she remembered. Working with the late Gino Moratti, a pianist who was the director of Jazz at Kitano in the Prince Kitano New York hotel, she hosted a Monday night jam session and booked other artists. She now lives in New York and East Quogue.
The mission of the nonprofit East End Jazz “is to bring jazz to the community through interactive workshops and special concerts, and also to integrate the youth and, in general, the community,” Ms. Ornig said. “That’s very important for me.” She brought jazz to the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center last summer in a workshop program that “was truly lots of fun.”
The idea of the East Meets West Jazz Jam Session, she said, is “bringing professional musicians together with hobbyist musicians, with youth, with anybody who wants to go onstage and show what they can do. There’s no thinking about ‘I’m a professional, and you’re not allowed to play.’ ” As a woman, she recalled, she was not always taken seriously, or sometimes even allowed to participate, in jam sessions in New York City. In contrast, this format will be open.
The jam session will be anchored by a rhythm section comprising Jane Hastay on piano, Mark Stevens on drums, and Ms. Ornig on bass. “If anybody wants to come up, they’ll have somebody to play with,” she said.
Jazz “is so important because it’s spontaneous, it’s improvising, listening to what others are doing and interacting,” she said. “None of the other forms of music set that wide a range to create something together. I love classical, pop, rock, but I think jazz is just a more creative thing.”
November’s session featured the Real East End Brass band, a.k.a. REEB. “That was fabulous!” Ms. Ornig enthused. “The room was packed. REEB are so much fun.”
“Tenor Madness,” the title of a Sonny Rollins composition, is the theme of the Jan. 4 program, which will feature performances of compositions by legendary saxophonists like Mr. Rollins, John Coltrane, and Dexter Gordon. Ada Rovatti on sax and Stella Brecker, her daughter, will perform. “We’ll celebrate tenor madness,” Ms. Ornig said.
The sessions will continue until May before a summer hiatus. They will resume in the autumn.
Those interested in participating on Sunday have been asked to email [email protected].
