Luke Podolsky breathed a sigh of relief when the UTC Jazz Band returned after two years in limbo.
UTC Jazz Band Director Rich Stichler
Luke Podolsky has been on edge for the past couple of years.
A junior and instrumental music major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he loved playing in the UTC Jazz Band as a freshman.
Then COVID-19 took the band away.
“I had been very worried because Jazz Band has always been my favorite ensemble, and I was worried that the program would never come back,” said Podolsky, who plays trombone.
At the end of March, however, his fears were erased when the Jazz Band played its first concert in front of a live audience in two years.
“Our first performance was definitely one of the most exciting moments in my life,” Podolsky said. “Playing in front of the audience gave me a sense of happiness because I knew that the audience loved our music, and I knew that the band was having the time of their lives.”
So was Rich Stichler, adjunct instructor in the Department of Music and director of the Jazz Band. He came to UTC as a music instructor in 2019 only to have the pandemic shut off all musical groups.
Even when those doors reopened late in fall semester 2021, music students didn’t exactly beat down those doors to be members of the Jazz Band, he said. Jazz isn’t a style that generally attracts college students because many of them aren’t familiar with it, he said, but it’s pretty easy to get them excited. Just play it for them.
“It’s, ‘Whoa!'” Stichler said. “And now all of a sudden they’re talking about it, and they’re listening to it, and they’re like, ‘This is cool.’
“You kind of open, well, not really open Pandora’s Box, but just expose them to new stuff.”
When the Jazz Band officially cranked back up in January, Stichler initiated a major musical change. Before the pandemic, jazz at UTC was played in small combos, maybe six or seven players. He switched to big-band jazz, which needs about 20 or more.
Big-band jazz doesn’t mean playing familiar—and perhaps a bit overplayed— standards like Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train,” Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” or Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump.” That’s a limited point of view, Stichler said.
“A lot of times when band directors think ‘jazz,’ they think, ‘Oh, I’ve got to play Count Basie.’ That’s it? Well, there’s more to it than that. Yeah, the foundation is there. That’s what it started out as. But now the sky’s the limit.”
Stichler, for instance, has written an arrangement for “All My Life,” a song by rockers Foo Fighters.
“And it sounds great, so it’s kind of neat,” he said. “If you can find good arrangements of current stuff, that’s good because I think it appeals to students.
During the recent concert in the University Center Auditorium, the band rolled through several styles. Swing. Latin. Funk. New Orleans strut.
“I tried to get a variety because every music chart was a different style. We played seven charts,” Stichler said.
Ultimately, his hope is to have both the big band and smaller combos, but that may take a bit of time.
“I want to start doing these things down the road, you know, once we get things really rolling.”
Podolsky said the new musical direction and its possibilities are raising his excitement level.
“When I heard that the Jazz Band was finally coming back to UTC, I knew I had to make it a priority to join the group, and I am happy with my decision.”
