SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts professors are taking their talents outside the classroom.

A jazz band composed of Meadows faculty members impressed students and fellow colleagues with their musical skills Saturday night.

The ensemble known as Jampact performed improvisational jazz for audiences in their familiar territory, the Greer Garson Theare.

Jampact performers include SMU Meadows’ Dean José Bowen on the piano along with accompanying Meadows faculty members.

Akira Sato played the trumpet and Kim Corbet played the trombone and synth.

To keep the music jazzy, Buddy Mohmed plays the bass and Jamal Mohamed owns the drums.

The jazz band jammed the night away to a collection of exotic tunes and blues music.

Many songs were of their own creation and other pieces were easily recognizable to the audience.

“Stylistically, we are a mix of free jazz, world music, funk, and any kind of dance groove you want,” Bowen said. “We have very different backgrounds and musical experiences, especially different ethnic and musical experiences, so this all mixes together.”

The innovative jazz band congregated their talented musicians from the Meadows faculty to establish Jampact in July of 2006.

With the appointment and welcoming of José Bowen as dean of Meadows School of the Arts at SMU, the timing for Jampact was perfect.

“So this is a group of music faculty at SMU,” Bowen said. “When I arrived five years ago last summer, we got together to jam and have been playing together ever since.”

The eclectic group of musicians played a variety of instruments from the synthesizer to the melodica.

The musicians moved around the stage and performed solos to highlight their musical talents.

Audience members applauded when Kim Corbet began singing along to the mixes.

“So dangerous, so scary, yet so beautiful, so I called her So-Scary,” Corbet said, while singing.

First-year Jacqueline Romero, a first-timer to jazz, said, “Theyreally seemed to be enjoying making music and being up there. They had lots of fun with it. It was fun to watch.”

Jampact made for an unusual and experimental show, but the musicians agreed that it is important for students to experience music in different forms than the usual.

“If it in any way gets people to broaden their horizons and listen to the things they don’t normally listen to,” Corbet said. “That is the power of it. Get into different interesting stuff which we are all about.”

Jampact’s free events welcome any listener interested in jazz, funk or exotic worldly music.

As a part of the Meadows Creative Community, Jampact always provides a suave and smooth performance for its audiences.