After four years, Garden Party, the seven-person jazz inspired band, takes on one of their last performances at UCLA’s 2026 Spring Sing.
It all began thanks to a jam session between band members, said lead singer Cocona Mori, a fourth-year music industry student; Benjamin Kenvin, drummer and fourth-year global jazz studies and economics student and Jude Fucetola, pianist and fourth-year music industry student, early in their freshman year. In regular freshman fashion, everyone was trying to get to know each other, Mori said. Sara Gorman, a fourth-year global jazz studies student and Garden Party’s bassist, invited Mori to a jam session and they immediately knew they wanted to make a band. A group started to form, and by winter quarter, they had booked their first gig.
“These are my siblings,” Gorman said. “This is my family. It is very sad that we’re all leaving, but I know we’ll always have each other to come back to.”
Apart from their large size, Gorman said their band has another unique feature with the use of horns. Gorman said as freshmen, the group discovered that the songs they enjoyed covering tended to include these brass instruments, leading them to later bring on a saxophonist and trombonist.
Mori said that the group’s sound is based in jazz, with most members majoring in global jazz studies, along with incorporations of folk, soul and R&B. While they started out doing mostly covers, Mori said they have gained a repertoire of over 15 original songs, with their first called “Moving On.”
When reflecting on her experience with Garden Party, Gorman said that a retreat the group took freshman year to Joshua Tree was one of her fondest memories of them. They spent the days hiking, cooking and playing pool, and the nights writing music. Gorman said the trip embodied who they are and have become: a close knit and inseparable group.
Earlier on in college Gorman said that the group played many house gigs. As they played their music in the same spots week after week, the bassist said they began to see familiar faces in the crowd. Gorman said that despite having no official music released they saw students mouthing and singing along to the words of their original songs.
“I think there’s something so special about that sacred space we created of just love, community and music,” Gorman said.
Mori said last year, the group got a chance to expand their name even more, playing at San Luis Obispo’s Shabang Music Festival. When looking back on her experience with Garden Party, the lead singer said this was one of her favorite memories as they got to play just a few sets before the well-known band, The Wallows, and got to meet them afterward. Going from a small practice room at UCLA to performing on a big stage was a really remarkable experience, Mori said.
In the groups’ sophomore and junior year, Mori said they ran into obstacles that prevented them from performing in the Spring Sing. Because of this, they made it a major goal to perform their senior year, with Mori even saying they chose the same song they were set to perform their sophomore year, making their performance this year even more emotional and special. She said this song is her personal favorite and she feels it perfectly represents them as a band.
Mori said that there is no single leader in Garden Party and that it’s like a jam session all the time. Each member, Mori said, exhibits their own musical interests outside of the band. The technicality of each individual instrument has taught her how to better express herself and learn how to be one with the group instead of just a vocalist, Mori said.
When creating their music, Gorman said that the group’s process is very collaborative. Some members come in with full songs while others, like herself, come in with just an idea and watch or test it within the group. This process always blows her away, the group’s bassist said, creating something greater than what she could’ve expected.
She went on to say that as the group prepares to go their separate ways after graduation, they hope to release some of their music over the summer. They want to have these tracks as somewhat of a goodbye to their past four years at UCLA, Gorman said, something they can look back at fondly.
“I want people to take this as a goodbye to our time here,” Mori said. “Our band would have not been the same without the community that UCLA has brought to us. I just want the performance and our song at the Spring Sing to be all of ours, instead of just Garden Party performing on stage.”
