Cal Poly Jazz students and alumni are fighting to keep the jazz community alive in San Luis Obispo.
In the heart of Downtown SLO, a hub of alumni from Cal Poly to Cuesta College, come together to share their love of jazz. They regularly appear at local venues like BA Start Arcade and Taproom, Libertine Brewing Company and others.
Many of the alumni majored in fields entirely far from music, such as engineering or computer science. However, music was always their creative outlet to fall back on.
“It’s definitely a more intense environment, but here people are more understanding,” said local guitarist Jacob Cherdak, who graduated from Cal Poly in psychology. “It’s a small town. People are more respectful.” He also mentioned the jazz community is fighting and asking for their spaces to play.
“SLO has this huge reputation about killing venues all the time,” said local bassist Alex Runi.
He said San Luis Obispo is a city of music, but opportunities to perform are being shut down due to noise complaints from residents. He talked about the history of SLO’s gigs, from a former jazz club in the basement of the bar Frog and Peach, to local boiler rooms in SLO’s EDM culture.
“The music culture in San Luis Obispo is dying because the city, not the people,” Runi said.
For other players like Cal Poly alumni and trombone player, Matthew Brom, jazz is a source of income to look forward to outside of his 9-5 with Cal Poly Traffic.
“If this is your first time playing jazz, great, we want you up here and this will be a space for you to grow into a better musician,” Brom said.
Today, he says students and alumni from Cal Poly and Cuesta continue to fight for the jazz scene. They keep a tight-knit community through word of mouth, welcoming newcomers to play.
Jazz performances in San Luis Obispo:
Jazz Night at SideCar — Every Wednesday at 8:30 – 11:30 p.m.
Jazz Jams at the Libertine Brewing Company — Every first and third Monday of the month from 7-9 p.m.