Attending a Jazz Concert Essay

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.

I attended a jazz concert on April 7, 2016. The jazz concert was performed by the Page brothers, Mike Willis, and Justin Butler. Justin Butler accompanied the other instrumentalists in one song. The instruments used during the jazz concert was a guitar, bass, drums, and shakers. The performance was located in the theater at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. The jazz concert was informal. The venue was favorable for the jazz concert. The instrumentalist played on a stage while the audience sat in the seats. The theater was small so the jazz music was easy to hear. However, there was a lot of people attending the concert so the theater was crowded. The audience was able to see the performers because of how the theater seats are set up. Also, the room was completely dark except for the stage so I was able to focus primarily on the performers. Overall, I liked the jazz concert performed by the Page Brothers.

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 Friday night, November 13, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. I attended the Manhattan School of Music for the Jazz Orchestra that performed by Jazz vocalists and MSM alumni Jane Monheit and many other musicians. That place is unlikely the ordinary place, people have appropriate dress on and have nicely etiquette toward the performers, unlike me, many of audiences seem like that they come to this concert with certain knowledge of Jazz orchestra. And its musical venue was the ideal spot for the concert, so I sat in a decent spot spot that located at midst of the concert hall where I can view all the performers and hear performers’ music clearly. And the conductor informally began the show was quite nicely and politely which made me feel really comfortable

The date of the concert was October 5, 2016 and the title of the concert is “Experimental Improvisation with: Kjell Nordeson & Peter Kuhn”. The concert was performed in Mesa College Music building. Peter Kuhn had three instruments with him a bass clarinet, saxophone, and a Bb Clarinet. He used the bass clarinet and the saxophone during his first piece, and the clarinet on the second piece. Kjell Nordeson was on the drum but had a lot of instruments with him. Sometimes he would play the drums as a drums set but sometimes he would put some sort of objects on top of the drum to create different sound effects. He also had a small glockenspiel and a flexatone. The concert hall was very simple, had a

The concert that I attended was a charity concert, which was organized in Boston at a local university there. The South Asian Student Union of Harvard University organized the concert. I happened to be in Boston and this particular concert was organized for benefit causes such as using the proceeds of the concert to fund a number of poverty alleviation projects in South Asia. The concert was organized in a rather big room, which had a very big podium, as well as at least 500 seats that had been placed in it. Therefore, the overall hall where this concert took place was a typical auditorium setting with seating and a stage at the front. The concert promoters talked about different cause benefits related to alleviation of poverty in South Asia and that’s why the concert was organized. The organizers also informed the audience that the musicians wore traditional clothing so that the audience members could also have a good insight and understanding of the South Asian culture. All of ticket revenues for this concert were then given to a number of charities which then would use those funds to assist the different poverty alleviation programs in the larger South Asian region.

The first question I asked myself at the beginning of the quarter was how much do I actually know about jazz? I have always characterized jazz music as a rhythmic and instrumental form of music. My impression on the basis of the jazz has always been portrayed with the African-American race. I think this was build up from the rhythm ‘n’ blues era and meaning according to the dictionary (“style of music that was invented by African American musicians in the early part of the twentieth century and has very strong rhythms and often involves improvisation”). But Louis Armstrong’s famous reply was “if you had to ask, you’ll never know”. Whatever else he meant, he was at least saying that jazz is noticeable, but not necessarily understandable by

The last song on the set list was called “Talk About It”. The texture was very thick because all the instruments were playing over

The sixth song was in blues style. The Name of the Song was, “I’ll see you in my dreams”. Just bass guitar, saxophone, drum, and keyboard were playing. It was short piece song but just enough time to feel blues. This piece was one of few slow tempo songs in this concert. The mix of bass guitar, saxophone, drum, and keyboard articulated

Never could I have thought that my first concert experience was going to be in a college class, performed by various composers of classical music. During the concert, I got to listen to four performances. First, the Oxycotton was played by Tim Sanchez. Second, Samantha Post played Acht Stucke on flute, followed by Nicholas Gledhill, playing Blues and Variations for Monk on horn. Finally, the CSU Graduate Brass Quintet performed a piece named Misty. In this essay, I will share my personal experience of the concert and discuss the different elements of music seen in the different performances.

The concert was performed on the Southam Hall stage at the NAC; this is a large hall with extremely good acoustics. It is a nationally known stage, so the quality of the hall is very good. Generally, the audience was very receptive as it was composed of adults, who were all silent. The acoustics were very good as the hall spread the sound throughout the hall without making it echo. This had a positive effect on the performance, because it was possible for the orchestra to be clearly heard from any point in the entire hall. I was impressed by the large number of students that I saw that night because the show deserved to have been heard by many young people.

Concerts contain so many sensations. The white chairs being put away, the stage getting placed back on the big black trailer piece by piece, and the quiet shuffles of the last feet leave the stadium; the stadium transforms into the purple and white stadium it once was, leaving no

The second vocal ensemble of the night started out with a song which included a twelve bar blues, called “ I use to know you”. This performance consisted of the most combinations of solos of the night as well as using an improvising style. The entire band started all together which led to a Trumpet solo. Then Jose on the Sax did his solo followed by the pianist comping. Then the choir along with the band joined together to lead to a female solo which was particularly interesting since she was scatting. The second performance of this ensemble was “Spring can really hang you up the most” which consisted of 3/4 time and 4/4 time. This started with a female solo vocalist then a male one. The band as a whole played together and ended with a male solo scatting. The third and shortest performance of the night was a vocal acapella piece, “Love walked in” which was short and sweet. The fourth performance of the night was a Richmond Rogers piece. This had a rhythmic swing/salsa feel from the “Lady is a tramp”. This started with the rhythm section, with the male vocalist and horns. Then the female vocalist from the choir joined and concluded this piece. The fifth performance for the group was a sequel to voice stand an acapella piece by Greg Jaspers. This song started with the choir using their voices as the instruments altogether. The final performance of the night was one of

     For my second concert report I thought that I would write about my only experience hearing songs of the Beatles live. The Rib America Festival was hosted by The Beatles Live Repertoire. The group dressed exactly like the Beatles, even had the same names, John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I had never heard any Beatles songs live before, so that was enough to get me off my butt. Not to mention, it was free entertainment, not a bad time at all.

This afternoon, I went to the music concert hall where is located in the music building for the listening hour, a small noon-time concert which is performed by the staff and students from the music majors. Since it is a free noon-time concert, most of the audiences just wear the t-shirts and jeans to the concert. Dresses are not required for the concert. The performance today is given by the Ananda Jazz Ensemble. They have played “Running Away”, composed by Bob Marley; “Madalena”, composed by Ivan Linz; “Conejitos y Ananda”, composed by Abi Romero; “La Bikina”, composed by Ruben Fuentes; and “Chukaro”, also composed by Abi Romero. Because this is a Latin Americdan Journey, all of the music performed is jazz music. All pieces played in the concert are an ensemble of piano, bass, and drums. During the concert, I was trying to be a perceptive listener; I enjoyed the music with concentration and paid attention to the music’s unity and variety, such as the dynamics and tempos. I also tried to associate the music with a picture when I listened to it and understand the emotion in the music.