The distinct, smooth sound of a tenor saxophone, piano, and drums, and guitar punctuates quiet chatter and conversation as Blue Buoy, a jazz band consisting of four RUHS students and one RUHS graduate, begin playing one of their weekly shows at the Riviera. Senior Clarissa Bullock and Class of 2024 Redondo graduate, Matthew Freeman, are the band’s saxophone players, and they play with seniors Benjamin Forsell and Hunter Taylor and junior Carter Bennett.

A main focus of the band is to expose jazz to younger audiences, particularly since it isn’t a common genre for people of a younger demographic to listen to.

“I love playing jazz because it’s not something that you hear too much of anymore, especially live. It’s just amazing when we see younger kids enjoying the music because it’s not something that a lot of younger people can appreciate or hear a lot of in this day and age.” Freeman said.

The band plays a mix of original music, headers and covers, but throughout the multitude of songs they play, it remains important to them to preserve influences of prominent jazz artists from the past who have left a lasting mark on music history.

“I listen to a lot of jazz, and some of my biggest influences are Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and more. I really like trying to emulate some of their sounds into my own music, and as a band, I think we definitely represent some older jazz influences,” Bullock said.

Since the music Blue Buoy plays doesn’t necessarily align with current pop or other trending sounds, seeing listeners enjoy themselves and enjoy the music during performances becomes a special experience for those playing the music.

“The effect I want our music to have on people is what I’d say most musicians strive for. It’s to make people happy; I love when our music makes people dance and smile. Since it’s not something heard a lot live, it’s really amazing to see people enjoy it,” Freeman said.

Taking as many opportunities as possible to expand themselves and play their music, the band has performed at several venues and gigs consistently, and they plan to continue doing so.

“Once a week, we perform at the farmers market at the Riviera. We do any gigs people ask us about because we’ll take any opportunity to play, so we’ve also done restaurants, private events and people’s parties. It’s something I hope we can keep doing, especially because playing weekly at the Riviera has kind of become a sort of ritual for me, and I look forward to it every week,” Bullock said.

Their immense practice has allowed the band members to adapt to playing in front of a crowd, but performing live still comes with its share of nerves.

“Playing for audiences is actually the part of playing that makes me the least nervous. I’m confident that we sound good and people will mainly feed off of our energy. What makes me nervous is the rest of the band, because playing with a group of good musicians means they’ll probably catch any mistakes I make. But still, playing with this group of supportive people makes me more relaxed, and we all know we can count on each other,” Freeman said.

The band has been playing together since the 2022-2023 school year, and even though group members have shifted over the years due to graduations, they’ve established close relationships with each other.

“We all already knew each other pretty well from school and from playing in jazz band together every year, and being in the band together has helped us form a different kind of bond and get to know each other better, also in the context of our different playing styles and different approaches to music,” Bullock said.

The friendship they’ve formed over the years playing together has proved to be just as important to all of them as the music itself, and the music has allowed them all to be brought much closer together.

“The group we have right now is a great group to rehearse with because of how well we get along,” Freeman said. “The most rewarding part of performing live is actually just having fun and jamming with the group. Being able to solo back and forth and play tunes is such a great feeling. That’s definitely my favorite part of playing, just being able to jam and be completely in the zone.”