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Jazz Ensembles

Roxy Coss, Director of Jazz Studies, Assistant Professor
roxy.coss@stonybrook.edu 

Thomas Manuel, Endowed Artist in Residence, Instructor
thomas.manuel@stonybrook.edu

Ray Anderson, Toll Professor
ray.anderson@stonybrook.edu

ABOUT SBU JAZZ
The Stony Brook Jazz program is led by Director Roxy Coss, GRAMMY Award-winning Saxophonist, Composer, Educator and Activist. A recipient of the Downbeat Critics Poll “Rising Star” Award, Roxy is also the President and Founder of Women in Jazz Organization. She leads the Jazz Graduate Small Ensemble, Co-leads the Stony Brook University Jazz Orchestra - Stony Brook’s big band, as well as teaches private lessons for graduate students, other jazz courses TBD, and oversees the Jazz department.

Thomas Manuel, Endowed Artist in Residence Fellow at SBU and Director of the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, is the Conductor of The SBU Jazz Orchestra, and supervises the small jazz ensembles along with talented graduate assistants, teaches private lessons for jazz trumpet students, History of Jazz, and other jazz courses TBD.

Ray Anderson, chosen five times as “Best Trombonist” in Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll, is former Director of Jazz at SBU, and currently the Toll Professor in Jazz, teaching private lessons and Improvisation.

 

SBU Jazz Orchestra

JAZZ COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:

Jazz Orchestra & Combos directed by: 
Thomas Manuel thomas.manuel@stonybrook.edu
Teaching Assistants Andrea Veneziani, Dario Chiazzolino
Under the guidance of Jazz Director, Roxy Coss roxy.coss@stonybrook.edu

 

Jazz Combos
As much as possible, this course will be run just like a rehearsal for a band performance.  We will be covering a wide range of music with an emphasis on the interplay between the group and the individual. Knowledge of the music’s history and an understanding of the African-American culture that gave birth to Jazz is essential to understanding the music. Rehearsals will include listening, discussion, as well a variety of exercises to learn improvisation and ensemble playing techniques. 

SBU Jazz Orchestra
The SBU Jazz Orchestra performs a wide range of music from within the Jazz Orchestra tradition. We will focus on developing a rich blend and sound as an ensemble, as well as engaging our  individual creativity and expression inside of the group. In this course you will learn to play jazz by practicing daily on your instrument and playing in class. Harmony, melody, phrasing, rhythm and the study of the African-American roots of jazz will be included. We will be exploring the essential jazz tension between composition and improvisation. 

The Jazz Orchestra explores traditional literature from composers like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, Stan Kenton, and Thad Jones, as well as newly composed works. Each year select students from the Jazz Orchestra have the opportunity to be a part of an annual large scale project at The Staller Center. Guest artists will work with the Jazz Orchestrathroughout the semester. There are weekly rotating sectionals as well as a concluding concert at the end of each semester. Additional performances are TBD.

Jazz Private Lessons
This course consists of weekly individual jazz lessons. The course is open to any and all students who have successfully auditioned and been placed with an instructor based on their skill level, schedule, and desire to focus on particular aspects of jazz. The purpose of the lessons is to develop jazz skills, including instrument technique, blues and expression, harmonic understanding, phrasing and melodic interpretation, rhythmic concepts, and improvisational skills in the context of jazz, popular music, and music from the lineage of Black American Music. Lessons will include scales and chord theory, ear training, improvisation, technique building, standards and jazz standards repertoire, and may also include latin jazz, popular music, brazilian music, voicings, accompaniment, and more. 

Beginning Improvisation
Beginning Improv is a class that we offer as needed, for our students who are more new to jazz. This class will cover basic concepts of improvisation and jazz performance.

JAZZ AUDITION PROCESS - This semester, ALL Jazz Auditions will be done virtually!
CLICK HERE TO AUDITION FOR THE JAZZ PROGRAM

Everyone is welcome to audition for the following jazz classes at Stony Brook, but you must audition to participate in them. You need permission to register. You must register to attend.

Jazz Offerings BY AUDITION ONLY:

  • Jazz Private Lessons

  • Jazz Combos - MUS 267/289 (times TBA, most likely Monday & Wednesday afternoons)

  • Beginning Improvisation - MUS 189 (Time To Be Announced)

  • SBU Jazz Orchestra (Big Band) - MUS 264 (Mondays, 7PM-9:30PM)



All Jazz Auditions will be held VIRTUALLY for SPRING 2026. 

Students should record a video of themselves playing, and submit it to the link provided, by January 31, 2026 at 11:59pm EST.

The video should include the following: 
Please introduce yourself, state your name, and what you are going to play before each selection.

  1. Play or sing a Major Scale of your choice (if possible, with swung eighth notes)

  2. Arpeggiate a Major 7th chord, Dominant 7th chord, Minor 7th chord (if you know how)

  3. Play a melody and improvise a 1-chorus solo over: Jazz Standard of your choice

  4. Play a melody and improvise a 1-chorus solo over: Jazz Blues composition of your choice

*Returning jazz students DO NOT need to audition for Spring 2026, as long as they submitted their jazz survey for Fall 2025.

**ALL students should submit a copy of their weekly schedule in the audition link or by email to roxy.coss@stonybrook.edu 

CLICK HERE TO AUDITION FOR THE JAZZ PROGRAM

 

Performance Ensembles
Performance Ensembles