The last Eastern Jazz Combos concert of the semester will showcase the evolution of the groups’ performance skills Thursday.

The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Black Box of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The student ensembles Vanguard Quintet, Birdland Quintet and the Blue Note Quintet will each perform three pieces of music to show the progress they made during the semester.

Paul Johnston, the coordinator of the combos program and a music professor, said the groups have done really well, and the number of pieces that the group plays has expanded.

“As a teacher, what I like about these concerts is that you get to see how much the groups have improved over the semester,” Johnston said.

During the first concert, Johnston said each group only did one piece whereas now they each do three.

“They’ve all done well, and it’s exciting to see them progress, not only as a group, but also as individuals,” Johnston said.

“As they develop more experience improvising and more experience as a group, they just all continue to improve.”

He said there are a few differences between the first and last concert.

“This gives them more of a chance to improvise and to play in different styles,” Johnston said.

The ensembles will be playing pieces from historic jazz composers such as Richard Carpenter who composed “Walkin” from Miles Davis.

Other famous jazz composers include Clifford Brown and J. J. Johnson.

“It’ll be a nice variety of music from different styles and different time periods, so I think the audience will really enjoy it,” Johnston said.

The Vanguard Quintet will be performing a piece by Bobby Timmons, an American jazz pianist and composer, that was made famous by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers.

Johnston said after the concert they will start over and begin working on new selections for next semester.

“It’s always fun to hear the recording of the concert and start working on some new material,” Johnston said.

He said the combos will work on pieces before the break, come back and try some new things before the next concert.

“I always hope they are listening to a lot of music over break and come back with some new ideas of pieces they’d like to learn and concepts they’d like to explore,” Johnston said.

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.