The Roosevelt Jazz Jam!
Want to play jazz and improvise in a welcoming, encouraging environment? This free community jam is an open invitation to students from high-school jazz programs in the Seattle area, their families and jazz-supportive friends! Food and drink will be available for purchase. Our facilitator will be Seattle-based musician Steve Treseler, a saxophonist, composer, teaching artist and author who performs and leads improvisation workshops throughout North America and Europe.
See Student Tips below!
Interested students and parents my info at:
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There will be food and beverages available!
Doors will open at 2PM, program starts at 3PM!
Suggested Donation to cover facility costs is $10/pp Adults. Kids are free, this is an all ages event!
PARKING IS PLENTIFUL BUT ESOTERIC. There are about 24 spaces right in front of the building, (OK to park on grass, pull ALL the way in as sometimes we need to stack cars!)
Please refer to our parking map on the Main Page!
Roosevelt Jam Session Tips, Courtesy of Sky Van Scoyoc (Thank you Sky!)
Here are some tips for how to be successful at the upcoming jam sessions, with sections for experienced jam session goers as well as newcomers.
Updated: 7/7/2025
Hello! My name is Sky Van Scoyoc, and I just graduated from the Roosevelt jazz program after having been involved all four years. I’ve been playing saxophone since 6th grade, and I had so much fun in Roosevelt Jazz. I owe a lot to the older students who were humble and supportive towards me in jam sessions when I was a freshman, and I thought I'd pass that along. Here goes!
For people brand new to jam sessions:
Typically in a jam session format, people will either volunteer to play on the next tune or be invited to swap out with people who played on the last tune. Jam sessions work best when all musicians are regularly switching off and rotating. Try to come up to play, people will help you out!
Before coming to the jam, figure out a few tunes that you could play. If everyone shows up to the jam with tunes in mind, it speeds up the process of tune selection.
If you have songs that you want to play, advocate that they be played! If the rhythm section is able to accompany and at least a few other instrumentalists know the song, you can play it. We want to avoid a scenario where people are sitting around disagreeing over what tune to play next. If you want to play a tune, say so!
Don’t be afraid to solo. We all want to hear you play, and we are here to support. It’s hard for everyone at first, but putting yourself out there knowing that no one expects it to be perfect is the best way to engage with improvisation in Jazz music.
If you don’t want to play, that's fine too! If you are still hesitant to come play, sometimes just watching the first session is the best way to familiarize yourself. No judgment!
How do I figure out what tunes I can play?
Generally, Roosevelt jam sessions have been structured around the *Real Book, a book with music for around 400 songs. If you would like to purchase this book, you need to make sure that you are buying the book that pertains to your instrument. For example, because I play the alto saxophone (E flat transposition), I would google “real book e flat instruments). The E flat book happens to have a blue cover, so you can pay attention to color as well if you’re not sure. If you don’t have experience with this book, perhaps you have used The Real Easy Book (not “real easy” from my experience, but let’s talk later). Same guidelines as before, look for instrument transposition (tenor sax, clarinet and trumpet get the b flat book, alto sax e flat book, trombones bass clef book. Both of these books are fair game for picking tunes for a jam session! Here are a few tunes from both books:
Doxy
Tenor madness
All of me
Take the A train
Autumn leaves
Blue Bossa
*Note about The Real Book: there are some tunes in The Real Book that would typically never get played at a jam session. For example, Golden Lady by Stevie Wonder is in The Real Book.
That said, I would highly encourage all students to know how to play a few tunes from memory. If you learn them by ear in the first place, even better! The best way to improve your musicianship in a jazz context is learning by ear. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want, and you can start the practice of learning by ear with super easy tunes. Some good easy jazz heads for if you’re just starting out are Now’s The Time, C Jam Blues, and Mr PC. I’ll link some recordings at the bottom of this document
For people familiar with jam sessions:
Give others the spotlight! Invite others to solo regularly. We want to get a chance to hear everyone. Jam sessions shouldn’t be considered successful if not all people present put their best foot forward. We don’t judge at jam sessions, we’re here to have fun and play music. So let’s build each other up at all times.
Listen to others. That’s the whole point of a jam session. We want to fully take in everybody’s unique musical voice. Be enthusiastic about what others are playing.
Be willing to rotate often. Don’t play many tunes in a row without asking others to come up and trade off. No one likes the person who gets on the stage for every tune and uses it as an opportunity to show off all of their “licks” and “advanced jazz vocabulary”.
Related, it’s best to limit the number of horn players on any given tune. We don’t want to overcrowd a tune with players, as it ends up becoming mushy and lessening the experience. As a general rule, only one of each instrument at a time. Again, the ideal is to rotate players frequently!
Jazz Tunes:
Now’s the time, by Charlie Parker (f blues):
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C Jam Blues, by Duke Ellington (there are hundreds of recordings of this tune):
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Mr. PC, by John Coltrane (c minor blues):
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