For at least the past year and longer, local Trombone player Evan Oberla has hosted a Tuesday night jam session at Ruby Tuesday on Summit. While the jams weren’t always specifically “jazz” jams, there were many seasoned jazz musicians showing up and playing every week including the talented Oberla himself. This was often a late night stop for some of the jazz jammers that perform earlier each week at the Park Street Tavern.
This month, March 2011, will be the last month Evan will be hosting the regular jams at Ruby’s. In a heartfelt message to fans of the jam session on Facebook, Oberla explained that he will be leaving to go on tour more often and focus more closely on a few of his musical projects including his own Quintet, the RFG Quintet. Evan explains:
First, I am leaving to go on tour more. The first being with Mojoflo in April. The constant juggling act of finding musicians to play every Tuesday has become a lot to handle and will be overwhelming when I’m not in town. I love doing the session and being surrounded by all the talented musicians and music lovers that gather there.
Second, as you may know, I tend to be all over the place with many different bands and scenes and it has earned me a few different (loving, hopefully) nicknames. (here’s lookin at you Gail ;-)). I thrive on variety and the challenge of putting myself out there and rising up to deliver the best I can…..” However, it has started to take its toll. I am narrowing my focus to a few projects to really take it to the next level.
Evan also thanks the many people who have helped support the jam:
That being said, I want to thank everybody who came and had a hand in creating some supermagical moments…
-The musicians who I called (a lot of times on the day of the session) to come play in the house band and gave their time and effort and just came and killed it! I could list them all day.
-The musicians who came out and jammed and got better each time and added to the musical drama and kept this thing alive.
-The music lovers who came, danced, hula hooped, told their friends, and helped create the coolest vibe I’ve consistently been a part of.
-Ruby’s for providing a spot to for it to all go down, thanks to Dan Mesnard for the sound(and Dr. Kenny Delicious and lately Kyra Jones)
-Rumba Cafe for giving me the spot on Tuesdays in ’09 to start it all
-the guys in RFG Quintet(Matteo, Nate, Max, Josh) for kickstarting it into high gear from the start
-Jeffro Jam- bro made it happen! Introduced many people to the jam and was a hella MC/promoter
-hope I didn’t forget anyone and if I did THANK YOU
There are still 2 jams left in March and I encourage you to get out and attend at least one of the remaining two.
March 22 – Bass player Larry Cook is back in town and also the jam has DJ Washington, Jeffro Jam, Stan Smith as well.
March 29 – The jam will feature dual drums and probably be the biggest jam to date..
And finally from Evan:
I know it’s a lot but if you made it this far, thanks for reading, thanks for jamming, and thanks to all the awesome people in Columbus. We will make our voice heard! When people talk about music cities, the list will go somethin like, NYC, LA, Chicago, Columbus, Austin etc. you get the point.
Peace Love Life Music
Evan Oberla
Thank you Evan for supporting the music and jazz scene here in Columbus. You have our support!