“We Always Swing”® Jazz Series

“WE ALWAYS SWING”® JAZZ SERIES - SEASON #31: ONWARD. Launched July 1, 1995, the “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series now enters it’s fourth decade as the region’s only community-based, independently run, all-jazz concert producing and educational organization, as well as serving as one of Columbia’s & Central Missouri’s cornerstone arts organizations.

The Jazz Series’ mission - To Present, Promote, Preserve AND Celebrate the now-global art form known as “Jazz” – remains as true today as it did at the outset. Since beginning operations as a six-concert presenting organization, the Jazz Series, with its small but extremely capable staff and an all-volunteer board of directors, has steadily expanded its annual offerings.  Today, the Jazz Series, with the development of its educational and community-wide programs that compliment 10- to 13-subscription concerts annually as well as the recently added collaborative and adventurous “Left Field Series,” produces close to if not more than 50 events per year. To date, the Jazz Series has collectively produced more than 400 concerts, which are performed in myriad of spaces from the intimate 125-seat club setting to a 1,200-seat theater. Cumulatively, more than 2,000 of the world’s finest jazz musicians have graced Columbia, Missouri’s, many stages. Now in its 31st season, the Jazz Series' presence and ongoing unwavering commitment to quality has permanently altered Central Missouri’s cultural landscape and simultaneously created a nationally known well-respected, community-wide jazz hub.  

This year’s CoMoGives Campaign – “31 Days For 31 Seasons” takes a close-up chronological look at each Jazz Series season. Each campaign day zooms in on a single season, from 1995/1996 – the first season – right up to the current 2025/2026 season, the organization's still only half-completed 31st season. We encourage everyone to visit the entirety of the Jazz Series concert presentations, which can be found by RIGHT CLICKING: https://www.wealwaysswing.org/season/2025-2026/31-seasons/. Taken as a whole, the comprehensive list of performances and the musicians who have appeared is tantamount to a modern, post-World War II jazz primer – from bebop to hard bop, from soul jazz to the straight-ahead, right up to the avant-garde and what's happening in jazz today. The age range of artists underscores the genre's multi- and cross-generational reputation; the ages of those who have showcased their formidable talents and shared a stage at any given time, run the gamut from teenager to octogenarian with even a few nonagenarians sprinkled in.  

EXPANDING THE BREADTH, SCOPE AND REACH OF JAZZ SERIES COMOGIVES DONORS - THE 2025 CAMPAIGN GOES GLOBAL. During the course of the first dozen CoMoGives Campaigns, contributions in a single year have arrived from as many as 33 states as well as from as many as 15 Missouri counties. While previous contributions have arrived from Japan and England, among a few other international destinations, in this our thirteenth CoMoGives Campaign, the Jazz Series will put to the test and seek proof that truly, “Jazz Is America’s Gift To The World.”

COMOGIVES - OUR MOST IMPORTANT FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN: Annual Individual Contributions now account for one-third of the organization’s carefully planned and prudently disbursed annual budget. The 2025 CoMoGives Campaign – thematically centered on the number “31” – looks to attract $3,100 on a daily basis for the full December 1-31 run, thus creating a goal of $96,100. The total represents 60 percent of this year's Annual $150,000 Individual Donor Goal. We believe our donors – YOU – are up to the task. YOUR continued generosity helps ensure the organization’s well-being and allows us to continue attracting the world’s most talented musicians, having them perform in Columbia and deliver some of mid-Missouri’s finest concerts. Beyond that, YOUR contributions allow us to continue essential partnerships with the Columbia Public School District & University of Missouri School of Music Jazz Studies Department that, in turn, lead to a plethora of educational activities, which, to date, have touched 50,000 K-12 and college-aged students and additional thousands of a general public that has enjoyed additional Jazz Series-produced activities, many offered FREE to the community.

We want to thank YOU for the continued trust YOU place in the “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series and most certainly we want to extend our thanks to your ongoing and forthcoming generosity during the 2025 CoMoGives Campaign. We want to encourage you to please encourage other jazz enthusiasts and fans – no matter where they live – domestically or internationally, to join you in supporting the “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series during this “31 DAYS FOR 31 SEASONS” Campaign. THANK YOU!