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Princeton offers a number of outstanding jazz performance groups. In 2006, the University Jazz Composers Collective traveled to Estonia for a series of concerts sponsored by the Department of State of the United States of America, the U.S. Embassy in Estonia, and the Estonian Academy of Music. The ensemble presented three concerts, including a performance at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn, where they premiered The Eesti Jazz Suite composed by the group’s director, Anthony D.J. Branker during his fall 2005 residency as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor of music at the academy of music. The Jazz Composers Collective also gave performances at the Geneva Night Club in the city of Narva, which was recorded for broadcast on Estonian National Radio, and at Theatre No. 99 in Tallinn where they featured two sets of original music created by students in the ensemble and were joined by Estonian jazz vocalist Kadri Voorand and guitarist Jaak Sooäär, chair of the jazz department at the academy of music. The Jazz Composers Collective was also featured in performance on Estonian National Television (ETV). In additon, the University Jazz Composers Collective traveled to Hong Kong, China in March 2008 to perform at the Vibe Jazz and Live Music Club, and the University Crossing Borders Improvisational Music Ensemble collaborated with the experimental jazz quartet Amparo from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden in concert at Princeton University
 In 1999, the University Monk/Mingus Ensemble was named winner of Down Beat magazine’s Student Music Award for “Best College Jazz Instrumental Group” and Ensemble X was selected by Down Beat as the winner of “Outstanding Performance” honors in the jazz instrumental group category in 2003. The jazz program received its third national prize from Down Beat in 2007 when pianist Julia Brav was awarded “Outstanding Performance” honors in the “Best College Jazz Soloist” category. In addition, Ms. Brav was selected to the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) Sisters in Jazz Collegiate All-Star Quintet and performed with the group at the IAJE 35th Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
The University Concert
Jazz Ensemble has been featured in performance at
the International Association for Jazz Education International
Conference in Washington, D.C., the National Endowment
for the Humanities Paul Robeson Institute at Rutgers University, Down
Beat MusicFest U.S.A. National Finals (Oakland,
California), and has received numerous awards at intercollegiate
jazz festivals held at the University of Notre Dame, Villanova
University, and Rowan (Glassboro) University. In addition,
several students from the Concert Jazz Ensemble were named
winners of prestigious “Outstanding
Soloist” awards at Down
Beat’s Musicfest U.S.A. National Finals and
at the Notre Dame Intercollegiate Jazz Festival.
The University Afro-Groove Ensemble was featured at the 2004 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) State Conference and at the 4th Annual North Texas Jazz Festival with two members of the group receiving "Outstanding Soloist" awards. Recently, composition graduate student Randy Bauer was named the recipient of an Honorable Mention Award in the 2004-2005 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award Competition for his composition, "Wide-Eyed Wonder." This work was created thanks to a commission from The Commission Project and was premiered by the University Concert Jazz Ensemble in 2003. In addition, the University Jazztet has performed at the Trenton2Nite Women in Jazz Festival, the Princeton JazzFeast Jazz Festival, as well as for numerous Jazz-in-the-Schools programs in the greater Princeton area.
Princeton’s jazz program, in partnership with the Princeton Public Library, was the proud recipient of a 2006-2007 Looking At: Jazz, America's Art Form grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, the American Library Association and Re: New Media. The Looking At: Jazz project series was dedicated to exploring the cultural and social history of jazz through the presentation of six compelling documentary films, accompanied by viewing and discussion programs, essays by eminent scholars, and live performances for the community that featured the Princeton University Concert Jazz Ensemble, Swingtet, and Afro-Latin Ensemble.
Princeton’s jazz program has also
produced eleven recording projects over the past twenty years, which
include Blue/Yellow Dances (Jazz Composers Collective), Expanding Horizons (Jazz Composers Collective), Yesternow: The Princeton University Jazz Program 1989-2004 compilation CD, It's All About the Groove (Afro-Groove Ensemble & Fusion Ensemble), Sounds From The Free-Thinking (Monk/Mingus
Ensemble) with guest trumpet soloist and former Mingus band
member Ted Curson, Music From the
Sacred Concerts of Edward Kennedy Ellington (Concert
Jazz Ensemble and Chapel Choir), What’s
Going On? (Ensemble X), Mosaic (Concert
Jazz Ensemble & Hard Bop Ensemble), The
Sacred Concert Music of Duke Ellington (Concert Jazz
Ensemble, Glee Club and Gospel Ensemble), Mean
What You Say (Concert Jazz Ensemble), and 7
Steps 2 Heaven (Concert Jazz Ensemble).
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