my name's Emily Kuhn I play trumpet and we were here at Merman's with the Emily Kuhn Quintet.

I've been coming here for 10ish years, and it's like our home away from home.

I'm Mary Merriman I'm Stephen Merriman and we own and operate and created Merrimans' Playhouse.

we love this art form called Jazz and so Mary and I got together as musicians and we partnered and created an opportunity for artists to be able to present their work in an environment conducive to hearing it.

Stephen and Mary are exceptional people.

Phenomenal human beings.

The nicest, most generous, caring people you could ever meet.

But the venue in of itself.

Very, very cool.

I think it's pretty special that they engage the South Bend community.

I've been playing at Merrimans' Playhouse probably since 2013 or 2014. they've been very supportive to me for my career as well as, for example, for my immigration application, because I'm originally from Mexico.

So they helped me apply for my artist visa by signing a letter of recommendation and everything, which was very, very kind of them.

They didn't have to do that.

we've become really close friends that they they came to my wedding and stuff like that.

So, yeah, we're close.

They're great people.

We come here, we play.

They've put us up in their house.

We hang out there, dog.

We they cook us good food.

And most importantly, they've curated the most amazing space for jazz.

We like playing here more than most of the places we play in Chicago.

at the century Center in South Bend, we put together Merrimans' Playhouse performance series And she and I were the bass and drums, so we only had to pay one other person.

And and so we sold tickets and we tried to see if we could, if there was any interest in South Bend, Indiana, for, for what we were doing.

Sure enough, we would have new people every single time that would come.

we kind of ran out of the funding and the everything for the Century Center.

but we we had a piano shop over on Mishawaka Avenue by the farmers market there we saw that if we bumped that a little bit more space, we can perhaps get the playhouse going again.

And I remember telling Mary at one point, the only way we're going to be able to get the playhouse going again is if we can go from the piano shop into the playhouse.

shortly thereafter we discovered that the the space adjacent to the piano shop was becoming available so when we first started and in the new space and Mishawaka Avenue we had our first group, they're from New York, and and they they said that they would like to perform here because they were going to Chicago and they went back to New York and told their network.

And so then we started getting contacted to play here and then it just kind of kept growing so and so that's what happens is people perform here.

They really love the experience because they love how the audience is so attentive.

when I was 16 years old, I fell in love with jazz.

And I'm a drummer With the way that jazz drummer play is something really special.

And jazz is not only music in the sense that it's a tradition and has its history and its players in a very particular style, but it also has a lot of attitudes and concepts that lend themselves to almost any other music.

Playing jazz with a group, there's an intimacy there.

There's a vulnerability.

There's a communication that has to happen for that art form to be successful.

And so I think you just get to meet a lot of people and you get to like become vulnerable with a lot of people.

So I enjoy that.

I like to think that when I'm completely relaxed, and allowing the music to speak and not forcing anything, not trying too hard to push one direction or the other, but just letting that happen and kind of turning your brain off, that's when that's when it's beautiful and that's what feels good on stage.

Jazz is so spontaneous and so like, there's so much improvization and so much interpretation that like playing in a band where you really trust people really just brings the music to the next level.

the fact that you come out here and you'll meet people that that you don't know, right?

I don't know anybody in South Bend, really.

And we always have a really good crowd when we come out here.

And so there's clearly an audience for the music here.

So it's great to come out and be welcomed here, not only by the Americans themselves, but also by the South Bend community.

I feel like there aren't many venues here in South Bend for playing jazz, it's really cool to be able to come here and to meet people from Indiana and people from South Bend and to be able to engage and play music for them.