A gift from Jim and Carol Ruddick revives the Rite of Swing Jazz Café, which will return this fall as the Ruddick Jazz Café.
The newly renamed Ruddick Jazz Café returns this fall, bringing the Temple and Philadelphia communities together for live jazz performances by Temple students, faculty and alumni.
Photo by Betsy Manning
Jim Ruddick, FOX ’81, first came to Temple’s Rite of Swing Jazz Café as a guest. Years later, when he learned the weekly Temple tradition would no longer continue, he and his wife, Carol, stepped forward to ensure it did.
Now, thanks to a gift from the Ruddicks, the popular jazz series is returning with a new name: the Ruddick Jazz Café.
The newly renamed series will make its debut Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Temple Performing Arts Center, once again giving Temple students, faculty and alumni musicians a place to perform while bringing members of the university and surrounding communities together through live jazz.
For Ruddick, the decision to support the series was rooted in his own experience with the Jazz Café and the role it played in reconnecting him with Temple.
Ruddick attended Temple to pursue his MBA, while working during the day and taking classes at night. Like many commuter students, he said his college experience did not provide many opportunities to engage with campus life outside the classroom. It wasn’t until years later, after moving back to Philadelphia, that he began reconnecting with the university.
The Jazz Café became a big part of that.
Ruddick and his wife began attending the series during its early years and quickly became regulars. What stood out to him was not only the quality of the performances, but the sense of community surrounding the Jazz Café and the opportunity it provided students to lead their own ensembles, select their repertoire and gain experience performing before a live audience.
“The Jazz Café has always been about more than great music. It provides our students with an invaluable opportunity to perform, lead and grow as musicians while bringing the Temple and Philadelphia communities together,” said Robert Stroker, vice provost for the arts and Joslyn G. Ewart Dean of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts at Temple University. “Jim and Carol understand how meaningful this experience is, and we are incredibly grateful for their generosity and commitment to our students and to the arts at Temple.”
Today, Ruddick serves as chair of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts Board of Visitors, an advisory board to the dean. He credits attending events like the Jazz Café with helping deepen his relationship with Temple.
That connection grew even stronger earlier this year when Ruddick traveled with the Temple Jazz Orchestra to Tokyo. Spending time with the students reinforced for him how valuable performance opportunities like the Jazz Café are to their development.
So, when Ruddick learned the series had been eliminated as the college redirected resources toward its core academic programs, he and Carol decided to act.
“There’s too much passion that we’re going to lose,” Ruddick recalled thinking. “We’ve got to save it.”
The Ruddick Jazz Café will run nearly every Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. throughout the academic year, featuring performances by Temple students, faculty and alumni.
“Had we not gone to those first Jazz Cafés, none of this would have happened,” Ruddick said. “I’m thankful for that.”
