Jazz, a musical genre combining multiple types of music like ragtime and blues, continues to draw crowds of Athens residents from various age groups. Musicians say recent jazz performances are drawing younger audiences. This seems atypical to what they originally expected. Meanwhile, this trend is part of a broader jazz resurgence happening in the city and beyond.
Over the past years, jazz has made its way into other types of music and consistently onto major platforms. This change may contribute to the recent shift in audience. Second-year University of Georgia student Justin Arnold noted the oral tradition is now being taught in schools. That is despite having a less rigid structure like other genres of music, such as classical.
Arnold takes classes in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at UGA, where he learns about different musical concepts like history, theory and performance. For Arnold, the shift represents a major turning point.
“Jazz originally passed down through oral tradition… but now you’re seeing it in schools more,” Arnold said. “There’s a curriculum for it now.”
Student Ensembles Bring Jazz Into Academic Spaces
Arnold is part of a student-led soul music ensemble group at UGA. The 11-person group performed for an hour on UGA’s campus. They drew a crowd of jazz listeners and personal friends alike. The group started a student-led group outside of school. Furthermore, it recently migrated into having a faculty advisor and course-credit opportunities two years ago.
What makes this moment different is the rise of formal jazz study at the college level. Students who once would have learned jazz by ear are now approaching it with structured theory and technique.
“People we see performing didn’t really have much of a jazz education … they learned through ear,” Arnold said. “But the new group of people … we were taught jazz in our band programs. We were able to take jazz classes at the college level.”
Building Community Through Performance
Many of the students in the group are not music scholars like Arnold. Another member of the group, Shawn Bulloch, joined the group after being informed about it by a friend. He joined out of his own love for jazz. That was despite his apprehension of large performances.
He said joining the ensemble enabled him to further his performance skills, learn about music and build community with those who share a common interest: music and jazz.
Some musicians say the resurgence of jazz is part of a cultural shift among listeners who are increasingly drawn to genres that are rooted in history and improvisation. Arnold said the appeal of jazz stems from its flexibility and its existing presence in the music they consume.
“Jazz has made its way into so many other genres,” Arnold said.
You hear it in pop, in hip-hop, in indie music. Even if people don’t realize it, they’re already familiar with the sound.”
Younger musicians often encounter jazz theory without labeling that way. Forms like chord progressions, melodic phrasing and rhythmic patterns that originated in jazz populate in mainstream music. These forms connect many types of genres. As a result, students who may not know they are listening to jazz frequently recognize the sound.
The blending of genres imitates the musical identity of Athens.
Athens’ Venues Anchor the City’s Jazz Revival
Athens, known for its musical culture and interwovenness with the community, hosts dozens of live-music performances in the area every week — including jazz performances. One of the largest hubs for jazz nights, Hendershot’s Coffee and Bar, announced the closing of the establishment early March 2026.
The announcement caused community uproar. Students and residents grieved the venue of the infamous Jazz Jam occurring every third Thursday of the month.
Lexie Torres and Dave Martin bought the establishment within a month of hearing the announcement. They noted their motivation of purchasing the bar as preserving the community hub that musicians and artists bring their music to. The news of Hendershot’s remaining open broke at what was thought to be the last — March Jazz Jam on March 19, 2026.
Because the event was assumed to be the last event, the venue drew a crowd of 100+ people. Following the announcement at the beginning of the event, the crowd erupted into applause. This reaction seemed to be relief of the thought of the community space closing.
The Globe Draws a New Generation of Jazz Fans
In addition to Hendershot’s, another popular venue for routine jazz performances is The Globe in Athens. The family operated pub, established in 1989, hosts Mary and the Hot Hotty-Hots every Thursday in their upstairs area of the pub. The venue filled with students and locals alike. Dancing crowd members stood in front of the stage.
Crowds erupted with applause after every performance and some crowd members went up to the stage to converse with the group members. Group member Josh Klein remains astonished by the turnout of the jazz night and specifically the age demographic of the crowd.
He said popular sentiment around jazz is seen as older, as that is where its origins are. But in recent years, the people who attend jazz performances seem to be younger as a collective.
What hair color do you expect the people at jazz nights to have? Gray and white,” Klein said. “We’ve been seeing a very young crowd, and it gets packed in here.”
After the performance at The Globe, fans of Mary and the Hot Hotty-Hots joined the lead singer, Mary Sigalas, for pictures at the stage.
“As always, see you next Thursday,” Sigalas said at the end of the performance.
Community Thread in Athens’ Musical Identity
The familiarity between performers and audience members reflects the depth at which jazz weaves itself into Athens’ musical culture. Seeing peers become performers and vice versa has moved jazz beyond novelty and a community thread in Athens’ broader identity.
Known for its eclectic sounds, Athens has a musical culture that facilitates collaboration and coexisting of genres like indie rock, folk, experimental music and student-led ensembles. Jazz makes a natural fit. It channels qualities such as improvisation and extends the reach of Athens’ music culture.
A sense of community became a defining feature of Athens’ jazz revival. As more students join ensembles, attend performances and share these experiences with others, musicians are confident in the continuation of the “resurgence of jazz.”
Sanjana Gopu in a journalism and sociology major at the University of Georgia with a minor in Law, Jurisprudence, and the State.
