Cabana Boys Concert Report

It’s amazing to listen to musicians who do not normally play with each other come together and leave the audience in complete awe. That is exactly what happened on the day of Thursday November 26th 2014. The Bill Crothers Varsity Winds comprised of grade eleven and twelve students along with a few, talented grade tens went to listen to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play. We travelled via a typical yellow school bus that took us to Roy Thomson Hall where we went right to the top level and took our seats. The seating seemed rather helpful because from a distance you could hear every instrument when you focused on it. It was beautiful. The band presented well with their “Penguin” like attire that was kind to the eyes. They appeared very organized,

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

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.

If you did not make it out to see The Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday, Apr. 19th, then you really missed out on a great evening of music. Family, friends, and jazz lovers nearly filled the Anne R. Belk Theater to watch and listen to the performance directed by Dr. Will Campbell, with special guest Derrick Gardner. Gardner is a highly accomplished jazz trumpet player, who has traveled the world playing jazz music.The Ensemble member are; Bryce Harris, Jonathan Carroll, Cody Belton, Garrett Brown and Bryan Patterson on the saxophone, Richard Hall, Casey Blackwelder, Wesley Taylor, Liam McMahon and Cameron Francis on the trumpet, Nathan Ricer, Patrick Foray, Virginia Crooks and Kyle Barnhardt on the trombone, Dallas Holder on the piano, Brian Gilbert on the guitar, and Colin Ray and Eric Chang on the drums. The Ensemble played seven songs, and four of those were played with Gardner. The songs were performed in this order “A Pair of Aces,” “You Must Believe in Spring,” “Count Me In,” “Big Dipper,” “Footprints,” “Just a Touch” and “Lil’ Fawdy.” All of the songs were performed exceptionally well, out of the seven these two were my favorite.

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.

There was no theme to the music that was played. The concert involved different genres of jazz, including Latin, contemporary, big band, and Dixieland. I felt that there was a good mix of songs and it did not affect the concert since there was no theme.

This concert took place on Thursday March 16, 2017 in the Atkinson Recital Hall located at New Mexico State University in the Music Center at 7:30 in the evening. The concert consisted of four jazz bands, NMSU jazz one and two as well Las Cruces High school jazz band one and two. The first the stage the NMSU jazz II, director by Pancho Romero. The first song they had played was “Primera Vista composed by Wayne Wallace”. Along with the jazz band they also have a few percussionists as well, on bongos, xylophone, and a drum set. The band also played two more songs called “Undecided arranged by Mike Tomaro/Shavers” and “Afro Blue arranged by Michael Mossman/Santamaria”. My favorite was the Afro blue song, there was a lot of solos which I loved

This week, on February 27, I visited the Latin Jazz Ensemble concert at Sacramento State University. It was my first time at a jazz concert in Sacramento. The jazz ensembles performed seven pieces during the concert with twelve different instruments. “Mama Cool Beans”, “Keeper for the Flame”, “Next Exit”, and “Plena Con Sabor” were four different and unique pieces which I liked and I think these compositions inspired the audience.

On April 10th I attended the Crimson Slides concert featuring salsa music and a guest artist from Costa Rica named Leo Rodriguez and it was an amazing experience. I have been wanting to see the Crimson Slides for a while because I am a big fan of ska music and I figured the slides would produce a similar sound. The general texture of the concert was polyphonic and I would describe the ensemble as a brass salsa band. There were eight trombonists performing and they were accompanied by percussionists in the background. The percussionists were playing various drums, maracas, symbols, a cowbell, and a woodblock.

I attended the concert of “Xavier University Jazz Ensemble” which was held on Wednesday, December 10 and took place in Gallagher Theater. Instrumentation was the style of ensemble and the instruments used at the band were saxophone, trombone, trumpet, piano, guitar, drum, and saxophone. Personnel were the students of Xavier University, community members, and Xavier Faculty/staffs.

The night had some very special moments when Eric Bazalian joined the group to a rousing ovation for “Time After Time,” “Yeah Yeah,” and “ True Colors.” His exuberance accompanied by a infectious smile captured the fans and he blew us away on the sax, guitar and his signature melodica. We also were treated to a full night of Bob Hyman (Hooters) on guitar along with Bette Sussman on keyboards, William Whitman on bass, Scooter Warer on drums and Keith Mak on guitar. A fine band who Cindy conducted like a symphony orchestra while dancing strutting, jumping and

On Thursday, August the 17th I attended a concert at the North Park theater in San Diego, California. The name of the band is called Celso Piña y Su Ronda Bogota, (which roughly translates to Celso Piña and his round from Bogota). With Celso Piña being the leader of the band, accordionist, and lead singer of the group. In addition, this band hails from Monterrey, Mexico, but their musical style has its roots from the Caribbean region of Colombia. This band is influence by the traditional music of Colombia, such as Cumbia and Vallenato. What sets them apart is that they have taken the traditional cumbia and vallenato and added more percussion, and electric guitar and bass. For example, in this concert, the classifications of the instruments used were the aerophone using an accordion, electrophone with a bass and electric guitar, guiro, timbales, and

On November 3rd of 2016 I went to listen to Bela Fleck and The Flecktones live at the Quick. The style of music that they play is called jazz fusion and I have even heard of this type of music, so I was interested to see how I would like it. The Flecktones have a variety of different instruments so I thought that would be a cool twist. Some guys that make up the band are of course Bela Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Future Man, Victor Wooten, and many more. The way they set up the stage was unique. They had different colored carpets on the ground and the band was pretty much scattered all over the stage.

Whatever your age, there will be an old or new favorite for everyone this Labor Day weekend, when the Great Geauga County Fair Band returns for its 78th season to the Great Geauga County Fair. Performances will take place at the Burton, Ohio fairgrounds from September 1st through 5th. They will be playing at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Thursday, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and at 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Labor Day. The Junior Fair Band will be performing on September 3rd at 11:30 a.m. and on September 5th at noon.

After most local performances we found ourselves hosting after-parties with various members of the large band. We never knew exactly who would show up at our house and that night was no different. Once we made the short trip home we realized there were only six of us, Dave’s mysterious friend included.