About the event
Jazz nights are the only arts season concerts held outside the Applied Arts Building. The ballroom is set up cabaret-style, with tables of eight, low light and a student-run coffee and dessert bar along the back wall. The Jazz Orchestra is an 18-chair big band with a vibraphone when someone can play one. It shares the night with the Jazz Lab Band, the second big band, which takes everyone the first band has no chair for and plays the first set.
The program runs from swing-era charts to newer writing for big band. Expect at least one tune the Lab Band’s trombones have been rehearsing since September and are visibly proud of. Most Lab Band players move up to the Orchestra within a year, so tonight’s second band is next year’s first.
Schedule
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 p.m. | Doors; dessert bar opens | Founders Ballroom |
| 7:30 p.m. | Jazz Lab Band | Founders Ballroom |
| About 8:15 p.m. | Intermission | Founders Ballroom |
| About 8:35 p.m. | Jazz Orchestra | Founders Ballroom |
| About 9:30 p.m. | Concert ends | — |
Location and access
The Founders Ballroom is on the upper level of Founders Union. Take the elevator by the information desk. Accessible tables at the front can be held through the box office. Parking is free in the general lots on Saturday evening. Football is at noon the same day, so by 7 the lots are empty again.
Tickets and registration
Pay at the table at the door, or buy ahead through the box office. Groups can reserve whole tables of eight in advance. Back-row tables are first come, first served, and they go fast. The public season pass covers this concert.
Contact and related events
The full season is on Arts Season 2026–27. The next jazz night is February 27. In between, combos play some Foundry Friday afternoons, and the Chamber Music Recital is the following Sunday.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This concert, its bands, its dessert bar and its trombones are invented; there is no table to reserve and no jazz night to attend.