Album cover for Steven Bernstein's "Diaspora Soul"

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University will host a free public concert October 2 with the Latin-funk inspired Steven Bernstein's "Diaspora Soul," one of the most original groups in jazz today. The concert marks the beginning of the Center for Jazz Studies' third annual public lecture and concert series, this year entitled "Jazz is a Culture."

The October 2nd concert will take place at 8 p.m. in the resonant, turn-of-the-century St. Paul's Chapel at117th and Amsterdam. The Soul of the Guitar, a duet of New York post-bop guitarists Ethan Mann and Sheryl Bailey, will open the concert at 7:30 p.m.

Diaspora Soul is a 7-piece jazz-Latin-funk unit, which through improvisational exploration and hypnotic rhythmic grooves, reworks the Middle Eastern tinged sounds of traditional Jewish music. The group features Hammond organs, Wurlitzer Keys, Latin percussion, electric bass and jazz horns.

"Jazz is highly spiritual music, with a broad welcome mat at its door," says Robert O'Meally, director of the Center for Jazz Studies, "Steve Bernstein's soulful blend of Jewish music and jazz is for everybody – it's designed to move everyone."

The Diaspora Soul jazz concert is part of the highly regarded Music at St. Paul's series, which hosts a variety of free concerts year-round that are open to neighbors from the surrounding communities and the Columbia community. In its third year, the series brings music and intellectual discussion of performances that offer audiences a better understanding of the music's origin and development.