There’s no telling what to expect when it comes to jazz.

Depending on the fad, styles may change. Depending on the gig, repertoire may vary. Depending on the musician, instruments may be mixed and matched.

And this is why every good jazz player knows value found in the skill of being ready for anything.

Jazz artists, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville faculty, Brett Stamps (trombone) and Rick Haydon (guitar), know these ideas are true, and they practice them in their careers.

In addition to their positions as jazz professors at SIUE, the two musicians freelance for various events around the St. Louis area, adapting their style and skills to match the requirements of the gig.

“As a faculty, we perform as often as we can together,” Stamps said. “People will call and say, ‘We need this kind of thing.'”

When people call for different things, the musicians adjust.

Since their arrival on Monday, the two jazz players have been adjusting to Ames and the Iowa State music department.

During this past week, the two musicians have been serving a week-long residency at ISU, conducting clinics and seminars for ISU jazz musicians who are interested in furthering their jazz technique.

Some of the activities have been a performance with the ISU Jazz Ensembles I and II, a jazz seminar open to the public and a clinic for members of the jazz band.

“[The jazz band members] are all very bright kids, and they seem to enjoy themselves and have a lot of fun with it,” Haydon said. “It’s fun working with them.”

And he speaks from experience.

Haydon and Stamps have worked with college students quite a bit throughout their careers and are both largely responsible for the success of the jazz program at SIUE.

“[The SIUE music department] brought Brett in to start the jazz program in 1979,” Haydon said. “By the mid ’80s, [the program] had grown to the point where they needed a second jazz professor.”

The program currently staffs three full-time jazz professors and an artist in residence.

“There are also adjunct professors from the St. Louis area to fill in other teaching needs,” Stamps said.

SIUE students will have to rely on their own knowledge until next week, though, since the ISU community will be blessed by the talents of Stamps and Haydon through the end of the week.

Stamps said tonight and Friday’s performances at The Maintenance Shop will include pretty standard jazz repertoire — standard to jazz musicians, that is.

“It’s going to be familiar material, but there’s no telling what will come out,” Stamps said. “It will be a pretty broad range.”

Joining Stamps and Haydon on Thursday and Friday night will be SIUE colleagues Reggie Thomas and Zeb Briskovich and Kansas City freelancer Todd Strait.

“We’ve collaborated with [Strait] on other performances,” Hayton said.

He added, “We swing pretty hard, but we play anything, actually, in the whole jazz idiom.”

The Brett Stamps Band will perform at The M-Shop Thursday at 8 p.m. and Friday at 10 p.m. Student admission is $5, and general admission is $8.

The two jazz artists will also give a jazz seminar in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall in the Music Hall at 1:10 p.m. today.