A Jazzy Afternoon at the Clinical Center

Lively jazz reverberated through the halls of the Clinical Research Center on June 10 when the University of Maryland Jazz Combo played a lunchtime concert in the atrium. It was their first return to campus since the pandemic began.

The crowd was smaller than usual as many NIH staffers have not yet returned to physical workspaces, but many more enjoyed the music that carries up through the halls and into patient rooms. Some patients walked or were wheeled over to check out all or part of the hour-long performance. 

The quintet performed upbeat arrangements of classic tunes and lesser-known songs by well-known jazz greats. The repertoire included George Gershwin’s Summertime; Thelonious Monk’s Nutty and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Once I Loved. Bandleader and guitarist Gerry Kunkel also dedicated a song to the hardworking NIH staff: Duke Ellington’s Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me. —Dana Talesnik