Crystal’s Lounge is tucked far from the main road and down a ramp from the entrance to the Ramada Inn, at 3536 Secor Road. Numbered tables and a hexagonal enclosed bar with hanging martini glasses fill the room, with mirrored walls and wine-colored couches. In a far corner sits a small stage. It is there, on each Monday of the fall and spring semesters, over the past four years, that the University of Toledo has hosted its Crosscurrents Jazz Night.
A night for students
Professor Gunnar Mossblad is the director of Jazz Studies at the University of Toledo. Jazz has taken him all over the world, and earned him a Grammy nomination. As soon as Mossblad came to Toledo, 14 years ago, he set up a performance night for his students. It was first held at Murphy’s Place, a former jazz bar downtown, and now, the weekly event, is held at Crystal’s. “There aren’t a lot of programs like this,” said John Garner, who took a jazz class at the University of Toledo ten years ago, and has been coming to watch jazz night ever since.
The jazz department has six full-time faculty and around 40 students majoring in jazz performance. Each fall, when the jazz nights begin again, new freshman are woven into the fold. “The value is for the students to have a professional opportunity,” said Mossblad.
Each Monday offers three performances. The first is a session of original materials and jazz standards performed by the faculty. “Club performance is different than formal performance . . . It has a different energy,” said Dr. Olman Piedra, who teaches Latin Jazz. Students get to see their professors just playing, not teaching; using their decades of experience for fun. “I hope they get inspired,” said Piedra.
Then students take the stage. The second performance features a different student group each week. Professor Piedra stayed on stage while his students joined him to perform in the Latin Jazz Orchestra. “Playing is like having a conversation,” said Piedra. Students learn a core set of musical phrases that they can utilize in the future. At one point during the Latin Jazz performance, all of the instruments fell out except for Dr. Piedra and a student, each hand-hitting drums. They each played off of the other, with the rhythms pulsing and pushing. They knew what the other person was saying, excited to see where the conversation might go.
A lifelong conversation
Jazz is largely improvisational, filled with shifting melodies and harmonies. The same song may sound slightly different depending on the night and on who is performing. “It’s hard to catch it all right away,” said Mike Cantufio, a graduate assistant in the jazz department. Cantufio grew up in Chicago, and decided to attend the University of Toledo after visiting one of these Monday jazz sessions. Cantufio is a guitar player. He originally played in rock bands until he noticed how deep jazz music can go. “Things unfold . . . you gotta’ really dig in,” said Cantufio.
“For me, jazz is just life,” said Travis Aukerman, a senior who is focusing on jazz percussion. “I’m surrounding myself with jazz music and jazz musicians all the time,” said Aukerman. Estar Cohen, another senior majoring in vocal performance, told me that her schooling has been about more than education. “It’s about experience, about learning to be in the moment . . . It’s a very fulfilling degree,” said Cohen.
The night’s final act is a student jam session. It was now close to 10pm. The hotel staff began to clean up tables. One student in large-framed glasses and a Bill Cosby sweater pulled out his saxophone and took the stage, already crowded with nervous underclassmen. The time came for his solo, and he killed it. His fingers seemed to press each key almost before he finished the last, pushing blue notes throughout Crystal’s. When he finished, he looked up at his friends and professors in the crowd, and smiled.
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Dorian Slaybod is 28, a local attorney
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and happily living in Toledo.
