the Jazz Collective - ProfilesArchive

About Me

is presently comprised of
saxophonist, Joel Cruz ,
guitarist, Joshua Marks
and drummer, Rick Hawkins
These formally educated musicians exhibit the youthful enthusiasm that has been evident in every generation of jazz artists. Each member is a fresh performer who draws inspiration from every past experience onstage as well as from varied cultural backgrounds, and each is ever aware of new lessons to be learned. They have performed together in Augusta for the better half of the last four years at venues such as the Metro Coffeehouse, TapTap, The Soul Bar, The Bees Knees, Tribeca, and Room 9. They have also entertained at numerous private and public functions like the Candlelight Jazz Series on Augusta's riverwalk, at the Aiken Jazz Festival, and in Augusta State University's Cullum Lecture Series (on Jazz).
Their music is the product of continual study and training, and blending of each members personal affection, and their repertoire stretches from traditional jazz standards to contemporary styles to recent popular music. The Jazz Collective genuinely provides a new musical experience with each performance.
They're also educators. Click on the blog entry, "music lessons," for more information on that.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/25/2006
Band Members:
Joel Cruz on saxophones, also provides vocals and flute;

Joshua Marks on guitar and bass;

Rick Hawkins on drums;

The band has rearranged its personnel over the past three years, embracing the honorable contributions of ten musicians in all, nine of which are (or have been) music majors in college. Aside from the currently active three, the collective has included: bassist, Travis Shaw (freelancing between Augusta and Athens); drummer, Andrew Anderson (pursuing a musical career in Sweden); vocalist, Malin Stromdol (currently home in Sweden, with our old drummer, we love them both); saxophonist, John McDaniel (now a saxophonist for the U.S. Marines); guitarist, Micheal Stokes (now making music in Athens, GA with Walcott and working with Travis again); trumpeter, Romund Anderson (a graduate from Cleveland and now in Colorado); and pianist, Paul Sladky (professor of English at Augusta State University). Travis, Andrew, John and Paul were involved when the collective originated in 2004. Since then, the group has taken every opportunity to work in some sort of configuration as a septet, sextet, quintet, quartet, trio, and even duet; they’ve also performed drummer-less, chord-less, bass-less or sax-less while always maintaining the distinctive sound of

Type of Label: None

My Blog

Andrews visit in March

So back in March, we welcomed Andrew Anderson (our old friend/drummer) back to Augusta. He fled to Sweden last summer for love and music (and other reasons). He's there now with another ol...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 04:00:00 PST

Educators/ music lessons

We’re teachers (of our respective instruments of course). Each of us teaches music at different locations in Augusta and Aiken. We’re as passionate about sharing our knowledge ...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 04:40:00 PST

FootLoose

the Jazz Collective to play the music for Augusta Prep’s stage production of FootLoose. cool gig.we all agree. like most of these shows, it ended with high energy and positive feedback.lik...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:15:00 PST

Kids Restart benefit concert

the collective was honored to have a part in a benefit concert for Kids Restart. so first, a word about this organization: Kids Restart is a non-profit organization that supports (local) f...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:22:00 PST

videos on NBC Augusta and in Augustas Lounge Beta

the Jazz Collective was featured fairly recently on NBC Augusta and on Lounge beta.NBC’s studio was a fun experience (and an easy set-up).you’ll see Deveran Roof (on bass) in place of Josh...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:20:00 PST

Augusta State University Cullum Lecture Series (on jazz)

April 19: We were honored to have a part in the ASU Cullum Lecture Series (on jazz). Thursday, April 19th, was to feature the "homegrown" musicians. Now there are quite a few other ...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:31:00 PST

origins

This band started as a quintet Myself, Travis, Andrew, John McDaniel (saxophones), and Paul Sladky (keyboard). We were just learning how to make this music. The cool thing is: we go...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Wed, 09 May 2007 07:54:00 PST

Rick Hawkins at Cuizine

We've played a couple months now with Rick Hawkins on drums, every week at Cuizine. This will be the Friday set-up from now on. The bass-drums-sax trio is something that Travis and I...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Sat, 05 May 2007 03:37:00 PST

Josh and Travis in Aiken

We're a "working" band and that's saying a lot. Aside from our Fridays and Saturdays, we have all kinds of shows and each of us work apart from each occasionally. Josh and Travis have been...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Thu, 03 May 2007 11:28:00 PST

Saturday Sidewalk Jam

The Saturday Sidewalk Jam& We started doing this right when it got cold, yeah, winter. Then it got too cold, obviously. We haven't been out there since, but as soon as we can fit it in... ...
Posted by the Jazz Collective on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:24:00 PST