If rock and roll opened the eyes of its listeners, jazz must’ve got its feet tapping to the offbeat.

Sacramento State’s Vocal Jazz program is leading the nation with talent in this under-appreciated genre, joining it alongside educational institutions like North Texas, Western Michigan and University of Miami.

The recent announcement of the Sac State Jazz Singers receiving the 2008 award for Best Collegiate Vocal Jazz Group by DownBeat magazine is guaranteed to bring a buzz around Sac State’s talent-filled program.

DownBeat is like the Rolling Stones of jazz publications. The receipt of this award marks the fifth honor for the program in the past four years.

Winners of coveted DownBeat awards can hope for a bright future in the music industry. Previous winners include singer Norah Jones and Julia Dollison, acclaimed New York jazz singer and current Sac State instructor of applied jazz voice.

“A lot of musicians who are well-known now and are putting out good stuff in jazz were also DownBeat winners as students,” said Kerry Marsh, director of the Vocal Jazz Studies program.

Marsh, a Kansas native, began instructing at Sac State in 2003 and, with the help of Dollison who joined two years later, has transformed the Jazz Vocal program into what it is today – an award-winning, chock-full-of-talent stunner.

When Marsh began instructing on campus he started with a bang, searching for new talent and focusing on recording quality compact discs that could be submitted for awards and used to entice the recruitment of new talent.

This meant utilizing the recording facilities at Sac State.

“I didn’t have the bread to put together a really solid recording, but having figured out how to do it on my own and mixing it myself has been huge.”

Those recordings are then submitted to DownBeat annually.

The awards are chosen based on recorded submissions from colleges all across the United States and parts of Canada.

Instructing these students can be a challenge, but Marsh leads his students with the underlying passion built into his persona.

“I love chords. I love harmony,” Marsh said. “I am drawn to jazz because of its complexity, because of its honesty and its spontaneity. That’s why working with groups and singing rich, dense harmony is so appealing”

The Jazz Vocal program at Sac State is organized into three choirs – the aforementioned Sac State Jazz Singers, C-Sus, an intermediate ensemble, and Vox 2, a beginners Jazz Vocal group.

Each group is distinctly different, yet all have an equally dispersed ratio of talent.

Simply calling a group ‘beginner’ or ‘intermediate’ is a harsh understatement. These vocalists are amazingly talented.

The talent is so abundant because of the staunch standards Marsh keeps. The lead soprano was a recruit Marsh sought out for years.

Marsh recruited Southern California-native Jessica Clemons to join about five years ago when she was a junior in high school. Clemons is not only the lead soprano in the jazz singers group, but one of two leader students Marsh mentioned as going above and beyond.

Clemons stunning voice cannot be mistaken and is the highlight in all three audio submissions to DownBeat that garnered the 2008 award for the Jazz Singers.

Clemons is classically trained in voice and grew up aspiring to be an actress and singer in Los Angeles.

“In my sophomore year of high school I joined the new vocal jazz group,” Clemons said. “From there, it clicked and I knew I wanted to do this.”

Marsh pursued Clemons’ voice, “begging” her to come up north for college. She gladly accepted after seeing what Marsh had to offer her.

“At first when I moved here it was really hard. I didn’t know anybody,” Clemons said. “It may have been difficult, but (Marsh) was so young and charismatic and excited.”

Marsh made big plans for the vocal jazz ensembles at the university. He centered the program around Clemons and began recording with the groups in the on-campus studio.

And it brought great rewards, like the ones DownBeat is honoring Sac State’s jazz ensemble with.

“I don’t think there’s anything more gratifying than being honored with this award. The perk of being the lead is that it is my sound,” Clemons said.

Beyond the passion for jazz, Marsh was a big inspiration for Clemons when she questioned her talent.

“(Marsh) did the job of getting me to Sac State, of making me sing,” Clemons said. “But every artist goes through that crisis of faith. I wondered why I was getting a degree in vocal jazz. He and (Dollison) were so accommodating. They helped me figure it out.”

Dollison, who rarely receives formal credit for her work with the program, is greatly appreciated by Marsh and all involved with jazz vocal studies.

“She contributes as half of the team running the program,” Marsh said. “We make decisions together, devise strategies on how to help students and run the program as a whole.”

As we go on day by day, letting all the beats of everyday life soak into our skulls, the wind swooning, birds chirping, boisterous college chatter, think of what acclaimed jazz musician Benny Green once said: “A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.”

The Sac State Jazz Vocal program has shows on May 9 and 16 in the Recital Hall.

Briana Monasky can be reached at [email protected]