{"id":2432569,"date":"2026-05-26T11:29:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2432569"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:29:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:29:50","slug":"madisons-feestet-takes-it-one-jam-at-a-time-with-patron-support-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/madisons-feestet-takes-it-one-jam-at-a-time-with-patron-support-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison\u2019s Feestet takes it one jam at a time with patron support | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Cap Times is an independent newsroom serving Madison and Wisconsin. Sign up for the Food & Culture newsletter<\/a> for exclusive weekly insight.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

On a warm evening in early May, close to 70 people packed into Madison\u2019s North Street Cabaret to hear Feestet host its monthly jazz jam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Held on the second Sunday of each month since early 2025, the Feestet jam has been free since the band secured a sponsorship in January, resulting in a spike in attendance and participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA jazz jam is celebrating shared language,\u201d says Helen Feest, Feestet\u2019s leader and emcee. \u201cThese standards have been around since our grandparents were kids, but kids manage to find ways to reinvent them and play them as if they were their own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feest says players may call a tune that they have been working on, but might not have enough of a repertoire to book a full gig.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little more elevated than an open mic because there are other people who want to play with you and engage with you,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Busting the jazz jam black box\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Jazz jams can feel intimidating because it\u2019s not always clear what the rules are. To solve this, Feest keeps things transparent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the back of the room is a signup sheet with room for a name, song title, key and instrument (and requests for instrumentation) for anyone interested in playing. The songs don\u2019t even have to strictly be labeled as jazz. (\u201cOur friend Pete the other week called \u2018Kids\u2019 by MGMT,\u201d Feest said.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go down the list in the order of signups. Everyone that shows up plays. It\u2019s that simple,\u201d said Feest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After an hour warmup for Feestet at the May event, guitarist Nathan Relles kicked it off with the jazz standard \u201cNight and Day.\u201d Feest invited a bass and some horns to jump in, creating a configuration of musicians that had never existed before. They then belted out the crooner classic with the precision of a seasoned band.<\/p>\n

Feestet musicians are paid for their time on stage. They\u2019re there not only to play but to lend advice, recommend a tempo, or just generally be supportive to newcomers and regulars alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Madison-based jazz group Feestet, shown during Jazz at Five,\u00a0hosts jazz jams at North Street Cabaret.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n RUTHIE HAUGE<\/span>
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\u201cWhen these scenes operate on volunteer generosity or very thin margins, staffing that house band and instruments can be really inconsistent and difficult,\u201d Feest said.<\/p>\n

At first, Feestet charged a cover, but attendance flagged after initial excitement. Last winter, Feest had an idea: what if the event was sponsored by a local business who got something in return?<\/p>\n

Feest, who works as a project manager by day, put together a patronage model. It includes the usual in-person shoutouts and social visibility, but also another extra perk: a private concert for the patron, who for the first six months of 2026 is the restaurant Sultan, owned by Sultan Ahmed.<\/p>\n

After Sultan\u2019s sponsorship, Feest noticed an immediate rise in the quality and quantity of participation, including by Ahmed himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking it free has brought a lot of a lot of different types of people in, like listeners that may not necessarily want to bite the cover fee that most shows have,\u201d Feest said. \u201cHaving the funding there to staff a five to six piece group, I think it elevates the quality of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing in volume and good vibes\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Feest is looking to keep the monthly jam free while securing at least one more sponsor for the remainder of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen it grow literally in volume and in size,\u201d said Feest. \u201cIt brings a level of diversity and variety to our scene, people that are differently abled or much older or too young, people that don\u2019t already have a platform or a space or a room to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd being forced to play with other people \u2014 complete strangers \u2014 makes people better musicians,\u201d she added, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not just about playing, it\u2019s about listening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cap Times is an independent newsroom serving Madison and Wisconsin. Sign up for the Food & Culture newsletter for exclusive weekly insight. On a warm evening in early May, close to 70 people packed into Madison\u2019s North Street Cabaret to hear Feestet host its monthly jazz jam.\u00a0 Held on the second Sunday of each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2432570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2432569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Madisons-Feestet-takes-it-one-jam-at-a-time-with.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2432569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2432571,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432569\/revisions\/2432571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2432569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2432569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2432569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}