Swinging drums, rhythmic bass, melodic keyboard, and screaming horns. Those are the sounds of Boyer College’s Rite of Swing Jazz Café.
The event has been running for 10 years and was started by Vice Dean David Brown and has been going strong ever since.
“Our Dean, Robert Stroker, wanted to have a concert for the community on a regular basis,” Brown says, “So we started this on Thursday afternoons at 4:30 and we’ve been running it every Thursday afternoon, fall and spring semester, since 2015.”
And the community loves it. They regularly turn out in crowds of 60 or more to celebrate the musicians that come by.
One of those crowd members was Andrew Rosenkilde, a Rutgers alumni living in Philly. He came to the show to support his friend. “No, it was really great, it was good music, good choices, and uh, all the musicians were really listening to each other, you could hear, yeah just making good music, that’s what I thought.”
A variety of performers have taken the spotlight at this event, but students are the ones getting the most valuable exposure. And Boyer students aren’t just performing; there are also students in the audience. When they show up…the musicians notice.
Performer and bandleader Drew Sedlacsik says, “I’ve gotten nothing but great responses so far from them which is, which is important ’cause they know everything that I do, but I am beyond grateful that they showed up for me and again that favor is always returned.”
The Rite of Swing Jazz Café takes place every Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the Temple Performing Arts Center.
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