The Jazz Club of Lafayette, Indiana is a nonprofit, local-community-supported organization dedicated to broadening appreciation for and participation in the creation and performance of Jazz music. Ongoing local events include Jazz concerts, Jazz and Blues Festival participation, and Jazz Jams, all of which are funded through club memberships and monetary donations from local individuals and businesses. For donations and inquiries by US mail, send to: The Jazz Club, 638 North St., Lafayette, IN 47901. For news about upcoming events, you can connect via our Facebook page.

At our local events, you can expect to hear traditional Early Jazz, Swing (Dance Era), BeBop Jazz, Hard Bop Jazz, Fusion, and straight-ahead to (sometimes) avant-garde interpretations of Jazz Standards and selections from The Great American Songbook. Concerts feature seasoned, professional musicians who are accomplished Jazz guitar, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, flute, vibraphone, upright bass, and percussion instrumentalists. Jazz vocalists are also an integral part of concerts and Jazz jams. Among our members and directors are full-time Jazz musicians, Jazz educators, and Jazz aficionados, all of whom are committed to enjoying the many opportunities available to perform and hear local Jazz music.

Each year, The Jazz Club of Lafayette, Indiana awards annual cash scholarships in the name of mentor, educator and Jazz saxophone master Antonio “Tony” Zamora (1930-2020). During his adult life, Tony Zamora dedicated his energies to building community relationships and opportunities for black students at the University of Illinois (1970-1971) and Purdue University (1973-1995), and to making Jazz education and performance accessible to students and the general public.

Established in 2015, the Zamora Scholarship is awarded through a Jazz performance competition among high school-age entrants in the Greater Lafayette area. Performances are judged by an annually-rotating scholarship committee, which includes area Jazz musicians and educators.

Zamora Scholarship Winners

• 2025 Corbin Stanchfield – bass (Lafayette Jefferson High School)

• 2024 Hayden Boyer – tenor saxophone (Harrison High School)

• 2023 Calvin Freed – tenor saxophone (Harrison High School)

• 2022 Griffin McAtee – alto saxophone (Twin Lakes High School)

• 2021 Griffin McAtee – alto saxophone (Twin Lakes High School)

• 2020 Sam McClurg – drums (West Lafayette High School)

• 2019 Rudy Ahlersmeyer – piano (Lafayette Jefferson High School)

• 2018 Anthony Hegarty – bass (Lafayette Jefferson High School)

• 2017 Sam Craig – bass (West Lafayette High School)

• 2016 Christopher Cooper – alto – (West Lafayette High School)

You can learn more about the life and legacy of Antonio “Tony” Zamora here, and those interested in the annual Zamora Scholarship can reach our executive committee at jazzcluboflafayette@gmail.com.

Central Indiana--from Richmond to Greater Lafayette, from Kokomo to Bloomington, with Indianapolis as its cultural and creative epicenter--has had a profound impact on the development, popularization, and evolution of Jazz. Our club and community continually benefit from our proximity to...

• Purdue University and its Jazz Ensembles and “Purdue Convos” programs, which offer excellent local Jazz performances among undergraduate student groups, and bring national and internationally-known Jazz performers into the community (and sometimes into local classrooms).

• Indiana University (Bloomington) and the Jazz Studies program at its Jacobs School of Music, one of the world’s preeminent Jazz studies programs, which has established and continues to grow an extraordinary community of Jazz performers, many of whom remain in Central Indiana and participate in Jazz education and performance at area schools and venues.

• Greater Indianapolis, the historic home of some of Jazz music’s greatest musicians and composers, including Wes Montgomery, J.J. Johnson, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Coe, Slide Hampton, Noble Sissle, David Baker, Leroy Carr, The Hampton Sisters, The Ink Spots and more. Just an hour from the Lafayette area, Indianapolis maintains the extraordinary legacy of these and other musicians and composers through The Chatterbox Jazz Club on Massachusetts Avenue, and at The Jazz Kitchen (named by Downbeat Magazine as one of the world’s top 100 Jazz Clubs) at 54th & College Avenue.