Tantra Jazz Jams: Watching conversations unfold

Jayla Orr

Local Music Journalist

Every Thursday, Tantra, a cafe located in downtown San Marcos, hosts a Thursday Jazz and Blues Jam! event where locals and visitors alike can come together for an evening of jazz. Opening with their house band, Chasing Tigers at 7:30pm, Tantra then opens up the event for jazz musicians to come on stage to collaborate over songs of their choice.

I spoke to event host Carson Weems, a founding member of Chasing Tigers and a Texas State graduate, and got background insight on the event. Weems spoke on enjoying and finding connections with jams but noticed after graduating that there weren’t many jam events still happening around San Marcos. “Me and Jeff, the owner of Tantra, got together to create an event similar to Bluegrass night but with more of a jazz spin.” From April 2026 to now, the event has been running, pulling in various musicians and audiences, for a great way to end(or begin) your Thursday night.

The event for a person not invested in jazz is fun in itself, but personally, I believe knowing what’s happening on stage truly enhances the experience. The core of jazz lies in the freedom and expression of musicians as they improvise solos and freely move through the musical scales and progressions of the song they play. Jazz Jams capture this entirely, as a group of musicians will come together to either make up a new song entirely or add their own unique spin and version of an existing song all in the moment together.

Typically, a musical key, a groove/swing, rock, Latin, ballad, etc., and whether the musicians participating will make up the song as they go or use a popular standard is decided before they play. A standard refers to a popular jazz song, where the structure and melody are already defined, with plenty of arrangements from different artists. In the case that they are making up a song, a melody can be made off of a person taking the lead, or simply everyone will improv over the basis set from the key and groove.

Jams are not inherently performative for an audience. It truly is about the musicians bonding over the music. With this in mind, jams are typically very loose, with careful watching you can see them gesture to each other to decide who will go next, what part of the song should come up, how the song will end, and all elements mid-performance. Not all musicians will be at the same skill or confidence level, so they have to watch each other and feel the energy carefully. While lots of musical performances can be viewed as a speech, jazz and jazz jams are a raw conversation.

Going to Tantra for Jazz Jams is always a fun experience. Jams are typically private and held mainly for the musicians to engage with other musicians and to gain experience. However, Tantra has the whole intimate moment set as a performance. A participating musician spoke about a Tantra Jazz and Blues Jam that has a low-stakes and supportive environment for musicians to practice: “Everyone’s really friendly.”

For cases like this with jams as performance, the musicians will sign up with their instrument and will be randomly called up based on what they play to make a full group to perform. A full group typically consists of a drummer, bassist, and some sort of melodic instrument, piano/horn/woodwind. In this moment, you see people who may even be strangers bond over the music and decide what they wish to do, right before everyone’s eyes. After asking a musician about how long before the musicians decide what to perform, he laughed and said, “A minute before?” He went on to discuss how there is typically someone who has a strong idea of what they want to play, and then everyone follows the individual’s lead.

At the 9/3 Jazz and Blue Jams, for example, I saw Kali Rose KB, a harmonica prodigy, alongside Justin James Bridges, an American singer-songwriter, perform with other musicians, which was a sight to behold. The energy of the crowd was through the roof as they danced and cheered excitedly, watching the two musicians showcase their skills. Kali Rose and Bridges also gained energy from the crowd as they executed their solos enthusiastically, feeding off of the live energy.

Every time I’ve gone out to Tantra on Thursday nights, it’s been busy in front of the stage as you’ll see people lose themselves to the music; They’ll dance alone, watch the musicians intently, or carry conversations with friends while grooving to the music. It’s a joyous moment either way, but hopefully next time you go, you can watch and appreciate the intimate, raw conversation that you’re catching a glimpse of.