A Note from the LAJPP Director

Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program

Welcome to the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. Jazz knows no limits or boundaries except one’s own imagination. All it asks is for the practitioners to become as free as possible to express themselves within the parameters suggested by a composition, an arrangement, a set of changes, a groove or maybe a completely free form scenario.

As Louis Armstrong and every subsequent idol of mine exemplified: Jazz is open ended and beyond categorization. It draws from every style of music and lends itself right back.

Here at Columbia we see jazz as a vehicle to create purely in the moment, to bond with others, to share ideas, and to reach new expressive heights both collectively and individually.

Please explore our website and we hope to see you at a jam session sometime soon!

Ole Mathisen
Director