Student musicians brought their instruments to the M Loungein Hughes Trigg Student Center on Wednesday to collaborate with their peers during a jam session held by TREAT.
TREAT, or the Talent Recruitment and Entertainment Agency Team, is a student organization at SMU led by Trigg Burrage, a musician and violinist, to give students who are not majoring in the performing arts a chance to share their talent.
Jam sessions are regularly held open door events where student musicians can bring their instruments and improvise music with other students.
People play anything from rock to jazz, metal, blues and electronic.
“It’s very free-form and has an open forum-esque collaborative atmosphere,” said drummer Yaw Asante, the vice president of publicity for the organization.
TREAT is a channel for student performers to find gigs and like-minded people to collaborate with.
“We are focused on giving them tools for developing their skills to the professional level, so they can understand what it means to be a bookable talent,” Asante said.
During this week’s jam session, four students who have never played together before collaborated on electric guitars and an electric drum set.
Junior Chris Thephachanh, a guitarist and winner of TREAT’s Stage Rush talent show, started off with a beat and the other musicians joined into the tune on his cue.
“There’s really no telling how it’s going to start and you never really know what’s going to come out of it,” Thephachanh said.
The musicians sometimes like to switch instruments during the jam round, according to Chris Escarfullery, vice president of operations for TREAT.
“It inspires me, I love jam sessions like this,” Asante said.
While TREAT is a showcase for artistic talent, there are also business elements involved.
The club acts as a booking agency and the officers are liaisons for the signed talent.
If anyone is looking for a DJ or performer, TREAT is a great source of entertainment for on campus events, Escarfullery said. They are more than willing to help any organization that wants to use their talent.
TREAT holds jam sessions every other Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and partners with the Program Council to sponsor open mic nights every other Thursday in the M Lounge.
For more information about TREAT you can join the officers on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. in Café 100 and to stay up to date on jam sessions and other events, visit the organization’s Facebook page.
Video shot and edited by Wesleigh Ogle [email protected]
