SWING
Get Jazzed! is a series that runs multiple times per year.
Get Jazzed!
This isn’t a class. It’s a community!
Love swing jazz? Want to connect by making music with real people — not just practicing alone?
If you:
- Want to learn about jazz music (even as a beginner to jazz)
- Miss the magic of playing music with real people
- Believe in community over competition
Then this is your chance to Get Jazzed!
How it Works:
- You will learn and play together in a small ensemble (3 to 6 musicians) for the duration of the 7-week series
- The purpose is to create inclusive and joyful small ensembles
- This activity will be accessible to musicians with a basic skill set on their instruments
- You will gain confidence, knowledge, and skills in bandleading and playing swing jazz standards
- There will be an informal showcase on the last day of the series
REGISTRATION
Tuesdays 7:00pm - 9:00pm
New Westminster Secondary School, Band Room
* Participants under 15 years old are welcome to join with parent supervision.
A special opportunity to work with these professional jazz clinicians in 2025:
Joelle Lush
Josh Roberts
Dean Edward Thiessen
Casey Thomas-Burns
Bonnie Northgraves
Dawn Pemberton
Kayden Gorden
Music Facilitators:
Jeff Neufeld
Jeff Neufeld is a lifelong musician whose career spans more than four decades. He began playing drums at age 14, inspired by Stewart Copeland of The Police, and went on to perform in rock, jazz, and concert ensembles. From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, he gigged extensively throughout British Columbia, logging over 200 performances, and studied music for one year at Capilano University. After transitioning to guitar and vocals due to re-occurring hand issues, Jeff returned to performing in 2011, playing classic country, western swing, and rockabilly for over a decade and more than 500 gigs. Following a period focused on visual art, he returned to music in 2025 with a renewed focus on jazz and chromatic harmonica.
Enrico Renz
Enrico Renz is a Vancouver-based songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist best known for his work with the art-rock band Red Herring. Active since the early 1980s, his writing draws on jazz, rock, and beyond, blending strong lyrics with adventurous harmony and texture. He also performs fully improvised music for improvisational dancers, creating responsive music in the moment. Whether fronting a band or playing solo, his work is direct, exploratory, and grounded in the pleasure of making sound.
Lawrence Chan
Lawrence Chan has an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. He recently began his transition from classical to jazz piano. He has been heavily immersed in, and addicted to, the swing dance culture for 20+ years (e.g. as a prolific dancer, DJ, instructor, competitor, performer, scene builder, etc.). Frustrated with the live swing music scene writ large, he decided that it was finally time for him to learn and perform the well-known swing jazz era songs that lindy hoppers are familiar with, but that most modern-day ensembles do not play. Lawrence also loves to talk swing jazz history and advanced music theory, so feel free to engage with him if you have nothing else better to do!
Jodie Haraga
Jodie Haraga is an educator, art therapist, and community arts leader who dances, plays bass, and builds creative spaces for connection. She began her musical journey more than four decades ago in a pit orchestra for student musicals, later co-founding the jangle-indie pop band January’s Answer in 2000 as vocalist, bassist, and songwriter. The band performed for nearly a decade, sharing messages of social justice and humanity. Since 2017, Jodie has created and led music programs for young people and adults, including a pop band program for elementary school students. She co-founded Uptown Swing Collective and Jazz Cats Social in 2022, and in 2025 launched Get Jazzed!