The sound of fusion jazz flooded LAC’s E quad on Monday at 4 p.m. when a free live performance was held by Burbank based jazz group, 6 Beats Apart outside the coffee pavilion to celebrate jazz appreciation month.
The band played several jazz tunes including an uptempo version of “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” and were accompanied for a few songs by jazz studies professor Patrick Sheng on the soprano saxophone.
The performance was put alongside Sheng, who reached out to band leader and bassist Bruce Lett.
Lett and his band received a grant from the American Federation of Musicians to perform for jazz appreciation month.
“As long as it’s free to the public, we get paid by the musician’s union. We’ve done about seven performances in the last month and a half,” Lett said.
The American Federation of Musicians or AFM is a union that represents over 70,000 professional musicians.
“We didn’t have to pay a dime, it was all funded by the AFM grant,” Sheng said.
Over the course of the concert, members of the band kept the atmosphere light through sarcastic jokes.
“If you have any questions, keep them to yourself,” Lett said.
Lett started putting together the group in college, rotating through around 30 members and six name changes, until the latest version of the group solidified during the COVID lockdowns in 2020.
“I own the Burbank music academy, and so we played there every single Monday night during lockdown,” Ed Wynne, saxophonist said.
The current name for the group came from the “six feet apart” social distancing requirements that were in place during the pandemic.
Wynne is a Long Beach native who graduated Wilson High School, met his wife at Lakewood High School, and attended LBCC.
In a moment that came full circle, Wynne pointed out that during his time at LBCC, he had performed at the Bob and Barbara Ellis auditorium that was on the other side of the E quad from the concert.