Jazz40 NYC: Douglass Street Music Collective

At New England Conservatory, jazz runs hot in young musicians' veins. It means the blaze of improvisation and individual creativity, the warmth of interaction in small ensembles. Experimentation is encouraged. And that's cool!

This tradition goes back 40 years, when NEC launched the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. In celebrating the 40th anniversary of this creative first, NEC dips into the past, present, and future, with a week of club dates in New York. A similar series of club appearances set Boston's jazz clubs ablaze back in October.

Where do NEC jazz alumni hang their hats? Most likely, Brooklyn, where rents are affordable and there is still such a thing as a jazz loft. In acknowledgment of Brooklyn's hipness quotient, an alumni band and post-show jam session take over the Douglass Street Music Collective for an evening that you will have to experience first-hand to describe.

The 7pm set by The New Mellow Edwards includes Curtis Hasselbring '88, trombone; Chris Speed '90, tenor saxophone, Trevor Dunn, bass; John Hollenbeck, drums. The post-show jam session features Jeremy Udden '00, '03 M.M., alto saxophone; Frank Carlberg, piano; Joe Fitzgerald '87, bass; George Schuller '82, drums.

The Douglass Street Music Collective is located at 295 Douglass Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. There is a $10 cover charge at the door.