Kai Slemenda

17 April 2016
The Work of Art
Benjamin Craig
Proposal
One of Portland States main attractions is its downtown location. The availability of the
city gives opening to extracurricular involvement and opportunities related to ones major.
Outside of the University, Portland is sustaining its rich amount and quality of content in the jazz
community. For Portlands music students, this scene is opened and integrated into the jazz
program with some of the most well known musicians working as professors and band leaders.
The available performance opportunities for students ranges on a scale of networking. Some
locations are great for connecting with others professionally while others offer creative and
social attaching. The opportunities range geographically as well on a shorter scale. A large base
of performance and entertainment opportunities for performers in Portland are located in the
southwest area. Particularly for Portland locals, observing this significant scene gives current and
historical insight into our community and its creative development.

Certain locations in Portland are well known for providing entertainment of well known
musicians that revisit consistently and others passing through. One of these with a legendary
reputation is Jimmy Maks, a famous jazz club featuring many of the PSU jazz faculty. Acts like
The Dan Balmer Trio and The Mel Brown Septet offer some of the highest level musicians in
the city who perform consistently with professional and crowd pleasing sets. The club also

features student performances through PSU and local student music communities. Seeing a
majority of these students are focused in the Lincoln Hall building, the Portland State music
department is a necessary stop for understanding the environment for teaching and performing in
the music program. Similarly linked to Portland State, Professor and jazz drummer Alan Jones
offers an extracurricular program AJAM (Alan Jones Academy of Music) for musicians to take
lessons, have organized jam sessions, and prepare performances at local venues including Jimmy
Maks. Educationally, this program is one of the best examples of Portlands strengths of local
musicians serving the community. Additionally, our surrounding of professional music can be
found at locations Michelles Piano," The Pink Martini Room," and Wilfs.

Local creative performers are further surrounded by small locations known for offering
opened mic sessions and slam poetry contests. Through the Portland Poetry Slam community,
competitions are held at Glyphs Cafe. One of the larger programs for this is Portland Center
Stage," hosting poetry readings and featuring special guests. The audiences are large and focused
and range in the various available types of theatrical and musical events. Literary Arts," both a
nonprofit organization and literary center, hosts conversations and lectures with professional
writers and speakers as a way of inspiring young students. Like Portlands jazz scene, the verbal
aspect of performance in Portland strives to inspire us with role models and opportunities to
present and grow in an environment with likeminded individuals.

Through visiting these locations and taking a small part in experiencing them actively, the
viewer is likely to get a sense of that type of crowd and what attracts them. These attractions

have been sustained for years now and have grown through lots of voluntary work. The
observers goal is to be questioning the history underneath Portlands creative performance
community and how they relate to these successive accomplishments. In a sense, Portland is not
notably recognizable as a flourishing location for jazz to a general public. However, gaining an
insight into the music and performance scenes and the people involved may give us an
understanding as to how the city operates. To many people, this side of the community is a strong
part of the citys essence, making this tour an educational experience to those desiring a wellrounded sense of the arts in Portland. Additionally, it may be beneficial to question how
performing on a small level without any sort of networking may be necessary to creating a happy
community.