A Jingle Jazz Concert

I stood up in front of a hundred curious, gleaming eyes. “Hey guys,” I began, “I’m going to show you why the trombone is the coolest brass instrument ever!” I immediately whipped the slide out and performed a series of sequential glissandos, each one with more vigor than the last. That morning, I was performing with my school’s jazz band at the KIPP Elementary Academy in Philadelphia. Over a decade passed since I had last stepped foot in a Philadelphia school, when I attended the James Dobson School in kindergarten, yet the cozy gymnasium and the children’s crisp uniforms instantly evoked memories of my childhood. But one thing I did not remember from the past was having the opportunity to experience jazz at a young age. Thus, I desperately wanted to display the awesome power of brass instruments that is the soul of jazz music and inspire the kids to partake in the timelessly euphoric journey of music that I am blessed to have taken.

The date was December 8th, 2017, I had the pleasure of seeing the Saddleback College Jazz Combos perform at the McKinney Theater. The theater is quite large holding about 100~200 seats but seemed to offer a good acoustic balance for the combos that played. Also, one can tell that it was the holiday season by just entering the theater. It was festive as it was decorated with christmas trees with christmas lights and the front was filled with light up flower vases. Furthermore, this concert is a cumulation of different jazz students put into small groups and perform in front of an audience. This concert also showcases their efforts as a group as well as differences in skill level amongst the combos.

Although I enjoyed the concert, it was very different than how I normally think of jazz. It sounded as if they're playing could've been improvisatory. Although I know that's not the case, at many parts it felt like there were three musicians playing separate pieces that didn't go together. It felt very free, and possibly purposely made to be unique. As they announced titles, they would indicate where the song comes from. Sometimes, they would indicate one of their band members and sometimes it would their version of someone else's song, such as their song “The Robots.” You can see the personalities of the musicians as they play and in their songs. The drummer, Dave King, wrote one of their songs “Keep the Bugs Off Your Glass and The Bears Off Your Ass” and was the most freestyle player. He seemed to have fun, and looked like he was completely free as he played. After relistening to the songs at a later point, I can confirm that not just his playing, but the entire song wasn’t exactly the same, which leads me to believe they do a lot of freestyle typical in jazz. Specifically, Dave King was very humorous throughout the concert. He would tell jokes the entire time between songs, and told a story about his big dream to give out ice cream at their concerts one day. Out of all of them, his personality and playing shined out the most. The performance showed clear elements of jazz and popular music as they played, using syncopation, freestyle, and melodies to musically communicate with the

“It’s about more than just the songs,” said Davis. “When you walk into a Hallmark store around the holidays, everything is Christmas - the carpet is Christmas, the window decorations are Christmas, it smells like Christmas candles and cookies. That’s the environment we try to create with our Christmas radio station.”

I attended the Baylor University Concert Jazz Ensemble directed by Alex Parker on Tuesday, November 10th. This ensemble consisted of saxes, trombones, trumpets, drums, a piano, and bass. The concert showcased many individual talents by including solo’s or duet’s in every song. The program consisted of seven songs with no intermission. The pieces I selected were “Big Dipper” by Thad Jones and “Undecided” by Frank Mantooth.

On November 17th, 2016, I attended a jazz concert and had quite a time. The experience was captivating, and gave me a warm feeling inside. There were three different bands that play in the hour slot, and all of them sounded magnificent, but “The Santé Fe Jazz Combo” and “Santa Fe Big Band” stood out the most. The only thing these two bands have in common is that some of the musicians play in both bands. Otherwise, these jazz fanatics are polar opposites.

On April 11th, 2017 in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, I attended the GVSU “University Band”. This up-beat ensemble lasted about 90 minutes; the talented students of GVSU’s university band joined together to perform multiple different songs ranging from a Waltz to a Dixieland Jamboree. All of the songs that the band played for the audience were all well-known, popular songs that they all enjoyed. Having the opportunity to attend this concert has opened new musical paths for myself and has allowed me to enjoy and kindly critique something that I perhaps would have never had the chance to otherwise.

On Friday, May 18, I attended the Burrell High School Jazz Band Concert. Over the concert, a band played for the first half, there were then chamber groups that played in between, the second band next, and then a combined band with alumni. I felt that the structure of the concert flowed nicely, as the chamber music in between was refreshing from the jazz. My favorite chamber piece was an African piece involving bongos and soprano saxophone.

The band was directed by Jordan Sayre and Arnold Rose. The band started off with “Perdido Arranged by Roland Barret/Juan Tizol”. For a high school band they had very strong beginning, the song was very fast tempo, and lots of bold accents through the piece. The tenor sax was really the star of this piece the band was really following him instead the tenor sax kind of keeping time and beat. The band played about 2 more songs and LCHS Jazz I came on to stage about played another 3 songs as well. One the played was Called “The Chicken arranged by Kris Berg/Alfred James”. This songs included a lot of saxophones solos from alto sax to baritone sax. The trumpet also played a big part to for solo, this piece they did lot of crescendos as well as decrescendos. It gave a more bold jazz feeling which I really enjoyed. Last but not least the NMSU jazz I came about on the stage to finish out the concert. They had four songs to play instead of three like the other bands. They started off with “Cell Talk composed by Sammy Nestico”. This piece was a calmer piece like a modern typical jazz piece. There was great transitions as well bold accents through the pieces. The band ends with a piece called “Uno Mas composed by Paul Lopez”. This piece was more fast tempo as well bold accents was well especially from the trumpets. It gave me more a swing vibe it was super neat to hear. This piece was perfect

After peaking though my program to better understand what to expect throughout the concert, I realized there were going to be two performances with 2 different ensembles as well as directors. Promptly at 7:30 pm, the band of Jazz Ensemble II came out, gathered their places on stage, and began to play “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be” by Mercer Ellington. I immediately recognized the stereotypical jazz setup such as the primary melodic instruments: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, as well as the piano, bass and

On December 3, 2015 the University of Florida’s School of Music hosted a concert at the University Auditorium where the Jazz band performed. The band consisted of four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombone, and rhythm. The Saxophone section performers included Greg Snider (Alto), Dustin Fergerson (Alto), Ben Grier (Tenor), John Peasant (tenor), Tony Laracuente (tenor), and Ryan Colon (Baritone). The Trumpet section performers included Sean Bocinsky, Ben Rochford, Lucas Owen, and Brantley Daniel. The trombone section performers included Stephen Anderson, Jacob Armstrong, Joshua Jenkins, Like Blackman, and Andrew Bajorek. The Rhystem section performers included Zac Chester (piano), Sean Fournier (piano), Erik Abernathy (Guitar), Delorean Fullington (bass), Calvin Bond (bass), Clyde Conner (Drums), Tom Hurst (drums), and Andrew Mankin (drums). The performance consisted of four pieces, which depicted different styles of jazz music. The styles of songs ranging from Afro-Cuban to swing allowing for the crowd to enjoy the wide variety of music.

Children are inherently musical, possibly even more than most adults. They constantly sing songs as they play on playgrounds, keep beat as they jump rope or play hand-clapping games, and are always thinking in terms of rhythmic patterns or melodies that they know. They sing along to songs in their favorite TV shows and use their creative minds to make up their own songs and dances every day. Since it is Halloween, I observed some of the children at the daycare on Duquesne's campus when they went trick-or-treating in the Hogan Dining Center. Adorably decked out in various costumes, they all chanted (somewhat melodically) "Trick or Treat" as they anxiously awaited candy. They, in unison, also said "thank you" whenever they received a piece of candy. Although most of these

The mystery of Jazz and its powerful impact on the music community can be explained largely by the context of it’s creation. Jazz was born in the United States, and because of this, many have referred to Jazz as “America’s music.” Like America, Jazz has a balance between structure and spontaneity. It capitalizes on the fluidity of the musicians, having several different instruments with independent spirits, coming together as one to form a great piece of music. Unlike other styles of music, Jazz has a certain way about it that makes it stand-alone in the world of genres. It improvises, moves, and transforms itself in a moment’s notice based on the musician’s intuition. Just as America harbors democracy, so too does a jazz ensemble, showing both the responsibility to a larger group, yet still allowing room for individual freedom. It all comes down to how well others can respect the overall framework and structure of the jingle.

The song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is a very happy and cheerful song that is played during the month of December to bring out the Christmas spirit in people. The history behind it is how two men got their big break and made one of the most played Christmas songs of all time. The song was originally written by John Frederick Coots and composed by Haven Gillespie on October 1933. Gillespie was in charge of expressing his gift of writing children's song lyrics while Coots came up with the tune that caught the attention of young children. The two came up with the song while riding a subway car in New York. The two men had a masterpiece in their hands, but needed someone to produce it. Many artists passed on the song because they didn’t believe the it would hit big on the charts and would be difficult to sell, especially since it was a song for kids. Coots at the time was a writer for Eddie Cantor and tried to persuade him to sing the song live on his radio station. Cantor was undecided on whether to sing it, but his wife eventually convinced him to give the song a chance. He ended up performing it live on November 1934 on his radio station and brought huge publicity to the song. After it was aired on the radio station, the song blew up. People from all over were requesting to hear the song over and over again. It sold over 400,00 copies and 300,00 of those were sold within the first 24 hours. The song made the writers millionaires with hundreds of copies being sold. It

Phoenix high school would like to introduce the Jazz Band, which will be performing not too long from now. It will be held on May 25th, 2016 the performance will begin at 6:30 PM in the Phoenix High School Commons. Some suggestions by parents of the students were, to get there early because those good seats get filled. This concert is being done to highlight all of the high level of music the students are working on. Directed by Mike DeRoest, much time has been put into the music that will be played at the concert. Anyone is allowed to come to the concert, it is free and any age person can go to watch. Many styles of Jazz will be played including, Swing, Bee-Bop, Latin, Rock and many more. “With a band of 13 members these students are going