When it’s not a place of worship, Hendricks Chapel is a place of jazz.

The MK Groove Orchestra will fill the chapel with music this weekend as part of a new initiative led by the People’s Place coffee shop. The organizers, who call the show the first in their Jazz Concert Series, hope to augment the shop’s popularity and support the local music scene. The band, led by former Syracuse University student Mike Kammerf, boasts 13 members and merges jazz with latin, rock and funk.

The concert starts at 8 p.m. Sunday in the main room of the chapel, and tickets can be purchased today at People’s Place for $3 or at the door for $5. The event is the first of its kind sponsored by the shop, and it materialized in just the few weeks since Winter Break.

People’s Place co-manager Meghan Bosher hand-picked Kammerf to perform at the inaugural show. He went to SU for a year before transferring to New School University in New York City. Bosher hopes the show will build the buzz about her coffee shop and create a new attraction at the chapel.

John Jewett, a senior computer science major who helped promote the concert, said he has hung fliers, distributed invitations and plugged the show through student radio station WAER. Bosher expects a crowd of a few hundred, and Kammerf said he’s drawn similar crowds at shows in New York City.

‘We’re underground, and people might walk by the chapel every day and not realize we’re down there,’ said Bosher, a fifth-year landscape architecture major in the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The shop is in the basement of the chapel, but Bosher said it has enjoyed success despite its subterranean location. Students run the non-profit organization, but it’s independent from the university. Much of its aura stems from its sale of Coca-Cola products; the rest of the university has pledged beverage sales exclusively to Pepsi.

Bosher said the jazz concert will complement the efforts and attitudes of the shop’s fun, funky staff.

‘People’s Place is a really hip coffee shop,’ Jewett said. He commended his friends at the shop for bringing new, interesting music to campus.

The band will receive the proceeds from ticket sales, and People’s Place will rely on food and beverage sales during the show to generate revenue. The shop has introduced the Jazz Concert Series as a pro bono venture rather than a fund-raiser, Bosher said.

Kammerf, a 21-year-old Syracuse native, has been busy booking shows around the state, and his band has built a following in its New York City home. All but one of the members – nine of the 13 will perform here – attend the New School with Kammerf.

He fell back on SU after many other schools rejected him upon his high school graduation. He spent a semester here before dropping to eight credits and prioritizing music and parties over grades.

‘I have kind of a love-hate thing with the Syracuse music program,’ he said. His academic troubles and musical accomplishments at SU soon led him to New York, where he says he can pursue music in a more bustling atmosphere than that of Syracuse.

His group had already booked performances in Buffalo, Ithaca and downtown Syracuse this week before it squeezed in the SU show. Bosher recommended the band play her venue not only to bolster Syracuse’s live music scene but also because of her friendship with Kammerf.

‘They need as much support as anything,’ she said of the band.

Sunday’s turnout will likely determine the future of the fledgling concert series. Though they’ve heavily promoted this show, Bosher said she and the other organizers have yet to look to the future. If the concert succeeds, the series may run once a semester; for now, it would be annual.

Regardless of the prospects for the Jazz Concert Series, the future of the MK Groove Orchestra seems bright. Kammerf says he works hard to lead his band on tour and in the studio, where the group recorded a CD in February that may be ready for distribution at the Syracuse show. Even on his vacation this week, he’ll work hard at what he loves.

‘It’s my Spring Break,’ he said. ‘It’s kind of my glorified mini-tour.’r

Published on March 18, 2004 at 12:00 pm