“The Happiness Is Better When It’s Shared”

Abstract This chapter outlines the history and development of the York College Community Jam Session, which has been hosted on the college campus weekly since the fall of 2017 and online since the fall of 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. The session is the product of author Tom Zlabinger’s challenges and successes teaching jazz on campus for over twenty years. When he originally began teaching at the college, he hosted a traditional jazz-centered jam session that focused on performing jazz standards to attract students to the ensemble. Over time, Zlabinger realized that the traditional jam session attracted only a certain type of musician (who had already performed jazz and simply wanted to explore additional repertoire and improvise with others) and may have scared away others. With these thoughts in mind, he decided to host a non-traditional session that would focus on anyone interested in jamming, rather than focusing on those who may have already improvised on standards before. The new jam session format had only a handful of guidelines and emphasized inclusion and has become incredibly successful. Students have spoken about the session as a positive and transformative experience. As a result of the session, several students have enrolled in the York College Band. The chapter discusses the music made during the sessions and includes anecdotes from four students who have repeatedly participated in the sessions over the years. The spirit of inclusion surrounding the session is repeatedly emphasized, as every weekly e-mail blast inviting students to participate ends with “The door is open . . .”