Every week while students sip drinks and enjoy conversation at the Lone Pine Tavern, two jazz artists provide the smooth, eloquent sounds that make people enjoy their evening.
Seniors Taurey Butler and Kazunari Munakata show that as the best-known jazz duo on campus, they are birds of a feather.
Butler, an engineering sciences major who hails from East Orange, N.J., began playing music when he was very young.
"I started playing the piano when I was seven. I quit lessons the summer before I started high school," Butler said.
It was not until later on that he learned to play jazz. "I went away to a program that exposed me to jazz. I did not start playing seriously until college," Butler added.
Munakata, also an engineering sciences major from Bellevue, Wash., said he first picked up the trumpet in elementary school.
"I started playing the trumpet in the fifth grade. I was encouraged by my mom who had a friend in high school that played the trumpet," Munakata said.
He did not start to play jazz until later in his high school career. "I made the switch from classical to jazz in the 10th grade. Jazz gave me the freedom of expression that I could not find in classical music," he said.
The two joined together their sophomore year and started performing jointly last year.
Munakata said, "It was inevitable that we would have met because the music department is so small and we are both engineering majors ... We play together at least three or four times a week and perform twice."
One of their favorite venues happens to be the Lone Pine Tavern. Munakata and Butler said they see the Lone Pine an excellent outlet for their talents and interests.
"It [the Lone Pine] is a really social place which takes a lot of the pressure off of us," Munakata said.
Although the pressure from the audience may not be as intense as at other performances, Butler said he does not see playing at the Lone Pine Tavern as a chance to slack off or play sloppily in any way.
The Lone Pine Tavern "gives us a chance to experiment, which is what jazz is all about," Butler added. "How you get better is through experimentation."
Butler, also a member of the World Percussion Ensemble and the Gospel Choir, said his work with the ensemble complements his work in jazz.
"It provides great experience," Butler said. "By playing with three different groups, each focuses on a different aspect of music. It lets me form an amalgamation of all kinds of music."
In addition to performing together at various campus venues, they are also members of the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble.
"The Barbary Coast gives students opportunities they would not have without it," Munakata said. Munakata has been a member of the ensemble since his freshman fall.
As an example he said the Barbary Coast had the chance to perform on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth II two summers ago.
Additionally, Butler played keyboards in a band called Bitter Squash sophomore spring and drums with Fat Dog Fred last year.
Director of the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble Donald Glasgo heaped praise for both of the musicians.
"I believe Kazu is the finest trumpet soloist in the Barbary Coast in the last 20 years," Glasgo wrote in an electronic-mail message. "He has an impeccable understanding of jazz style and plays with a fire, intensity and maturity far beyond his years."
He added, "Taurey is an incredible pianist. He performs with a kind of fluency and vocabulary ... together, Kazu and Taurey ... have helped to bring jazz to a new, exciting awareness on campus."
During his junior summer, Butler was able to gain new insight into the music profession. Butler said he went to a jam session in New York, and then someone asked him to go to go to Baltimore to perform.
He said, "I got a good look into a musician's life seeing how he was trying to make it firsthand."
This also gave Butler the chance for some more exposure. Butler said the second week of Fall term this year, he recorded some music for Jazz Central, a show on the Black Entertainment Television.
Butler and Munakata agreed the College has provided a conducive environment to their work.
"It is the people that I have met and had the opportunity to play with here that have really made the experience for me" Munakata said.
"For the size of this school there are some really fine musicians. Since I have been here I have really developed as a musician," he added.
Both of these engineering majors will remain at the College next year and enter the Bachelors in Engineering program.
"We don't know what we are doing after next year," Munakata said. "We only look one year ahead."
Both men have dreams of playing music professionally. Munakata says the dream of "living in New York and playing in small smoky clubs" has always appealed to him.
Butler has similar aspirations. He said, "Eventually I would like to get a job and test it out at night."
While Butler also said he is not sure of his plans, he does have a few ideas of what he would like to do -- perhaps continuing with engineering or going to music school.
For the immediate future, Butler has more concrete plans. He said, "Next year I'd like to split the piano seat [in the Barbary Coast] with someone else. I would still like to do it because I have only done it for one year but it would only be fair to give the '97s an opportunity," Butler said.
No matter what he does, however, Butler says that music will always be part of his future. "It will always be there," He said.
Butler mentioned the joys that come with playing music. When one pianist was unable to make a gig with the Cosmic Krewe and Michael Ray two weeks ago at Panarchy undergraduate society, he was able to fill in.
"After the performance, Ray told me that I could consider myself one the of newest members." Butler said since the group changes membership often, "I am definitely not taking place of the other pianist, but hopefully the opportunity will present itself again."
