It’s nearly impossible to make a living off of jazz. The venues are sparse, the audience is slim and the pay is even slimmer. But, there is no shortage of talented jazz musicians on the Seacoast and beyond, and some of them are finding innovative ways to advance the music’s appeal.

One such band is Chronic Jazz Syndrome, which will play a gig at The Press Room in Portsmouth on Friday night. The six-piece act has been playing together for about four years now, mixing modern pop and rock covers with old blues and jazz standards. In a single set, guests can hear arrangements of Stevie Wonder, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Horace Silver, Sheryl Crow and others.
The band members hope that playing modern pop tunes with a three-piece horn section will diversify their audience, and perhaps foster greater jazz interest from listeners with pop and rock inclinations.

“We’re still playing basically a jazz sort of format, where the tune gets stated and then different soloists take solos off of the tune, which is kind of what happens in jazz. But, we’re arranging a lot of pop tunes that are more current, in addition to older stuff,” said keyboardist Carl Pehrsson. “We’re hoping, by doing that, to get more of a younger audience who maybe wouldn’t come out to hear jazz.”

Pehrsson began sitting in with Chronic Jazz during the band’s ongoing residency at Slim’s Tex Mex Saloon in Rochester, where the group still plays on the first Wednesday of each month. The band now rehearses at Pehrsson’s home in South Berwick, Maine, traveling from around the Seacoast and beyond.

Accompanying Pehrsson are Wayne Mogel, of Rochester, on trombone; John Bethel, of Exeter, on saxophone and clarinet; James “Bat” Kaddy, of Newington, on drums; Dave Umstead, of Manchester, on trumpet and flugelhorn; and Jim Reardon, also of Manchester, on bass. Mogel writes the horn arrangements, and other band members have begun writing some original tunes.

Although they have been playing together for several years, the band members are just beginning to blossom as a unit. They are working on a Web site, and they are hoping to record more live material and hit more venues. Pehrsson, who does all of the band’s booking and marketing, knows how difficult it can be for jazz acts to get regular gigs.
“I think it’s very hard for jazz musicians to play almost anywhere and actually make any money at it. I think it’s hard to get venues happening,” he said.

Nevertheless, Chronic Jazz is making a run of it. In the early days, the band just showed up at Slim’s Tex Mex and waited for Mogel to arrive with the written arrangements. As the Wednesday night gigs began to attract bigger crowds, the members decided to actually start rehearsing.

“It just developed from there,” Pehrsson said.

With the recent death of local jazz icon Jim Howe leaving a hole in the Seacoast jazz scene, other passionate artists must keep the music alive. Chronic Jazz Syndrome is doing its part. The show on Friday, Nov. 16, begins at 9 p.m., $5, 77 Daniel St., 603-431-5186.