The Jordan Guldman Quintet is an NYC based jazz group with a connection to Truckee, CA. through their trumpet player Jordan Guldman. He is a Tahoe Truckee High School graduate who went on to study at Oberlin College and earned a degree with a double major in Jazz Trumpet Performance and History.

On March 3, 2026, this group visited Tahoe Truckee High School to lead a free Community Workshop for those interested in playing jazz music.

This isn’t the first time that Guldman has been involved in community efforts in Truckee to encourage music education. In 2019 he began teaching piano, trumpet, and improvisation lessons during the summer at Little Bird Music, and in 2024 he led a Community Workshop at Truckee High School with a different jazz group he took part in called the Music Quintet. This year, in addition to the workshop at Truckee High School, he also led a workshop at Alder Creek Middle School. 

Jordan Guldman communicated that the reason he continues to come back to Truckee and contribute to these programs is because he believes that, “This community…built me up and got me [to] where I am.” He identified the biggest challenge for people in small town art programs to be, “waves of interest.” These waves are determined by who you enter the program with and how dedicated they are to music; as he expressed, it affects, “what you’re going to be able to do.” 

His current jazz group is comprised of Wilson Woods on the piano, David Hodgson on the Tenor Saxophone, Marcus Lucky on the drums, William Mannerland on the bass, and him on Trumpet. 

The workshop started off with a segment of playing from both the Jordan Guldman Quintet and then Truckee High School’s Jazz Combo. After this, they taught students how to learn a song by ear; to wrap up the workshop they went over the fundamental chord progression of the Blues and encouraged students to improvise for a few bars using that chord progression.

During the workshop, the group reminded students to remember the community aspect of playing music. While improvising, Marcus Lucky told players to “enjoy the process.” Trying to encourage students to not have a single-minded focus on being immediately perfect but to embrace learning and honing specific skills over time. 

Furthermore, Guldman expressed that, “building trust with the people you play with is such an important thing.” 

As JJ Cruz, a senior saxophone and flute player at Truckee High School, put it, “It was helpful; it was fun.” He also added that it taught him a lot of good habits such as using the fundamentals of the blues as a road map when improvising and remembering not to panic if he messes up.