Concert Review: Jazz Showcase

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.

Armstrong and his All Stars quickly began their first song, “Sleepy Time Down South,” before formally introducing themselves. This song allowed the audience to prepare for the concert as the tempo was consistently adagio. The song also gave each instrument in the chamber orchestra the opportunity to each warm up with a song that was completely dolce and legato in fashion.

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.

My favorite part of the concert was the second part. The group played a song called “Body and Soul.” The guitarist played slowly before the others joined. They created a relaxed atmosphere with an old-school effect. All the notes were legato except the melodies of the drum which was staccato. The combination added character to the piece and made it entertaining. At 19:00, the pianist played briskly but beautifully, then the guitarist did the same. The notes became high pitched and the tempo and dynamics increased. After the guitar stopped, everything went into decrescendo and the melodies from the bass and drums became choppy (staccato). Overall the piece surrounded the theme of dependence and how it affects one’s happiness or strength. The piano and the guitar brought the happy aspect to the piece and without it, everything weakened and became uncoordinated. Initially it celebrated peace,

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.

The four songs in their set were either composed or arranged by a member of the group. Due to experience, each member was comfortable on stage and highly skilled; therefore, every solo was near perfection. This combo was unique because it had a trombone player, Henry Panion IV. Throughout this entire concert, every performance had one thing in common. Every player seemed to be having fun and loved to play jazz. This was my first opportunity to go to a jazz concert, and it allowed me to hear a completely new style of music. It opened my eyes to a great genre of American

The third song of the concert that I was interested in was called “Im Blue”. The general character of this song is mellow and has a New Orleans jazz melody to it. Rhythm in the song has a nice calming harmonious tone to it throughout. The timbre in this song is calming color to it making it a peaceful piece. The emotional content in this song come from the sax player when it’s his time to shine the whole band engages with everyone grooving out. The tempo of the song is very calming and brings you into a relaxing body feel. The emotional content also comes from the lyrics itself rather than from

The concert started with a trio; pianist, bassist and drummer. I was not able to take notes since I did not bring any pens or pencils and paper with me to write it down, and I did not want to disturb other people with the light of my phone, so I decided to fully enjoy the music first. Interestingly, I could not find any list of songs they were gonna play. I wish there were list of songs in order to remember the songs better.

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 remaining songs in the concerts were original songs that the band wrote and songs that were coming out on their debut EP. The first original song played was the song “Same Old Thing”. This song had a polyphonic texture between the guitar and the piano and had a fast tempo. One of the motifs in this song was very catchy and was repeated a couple times. This song was short and had a steady rhythm. The dynamics of this song were good because the tones were not too soft or too loud. The melody had a bright and warm mood that matched the atmosphere of the club. All the instruments blended beautifully which resulted in a great harmony. I felt like the drumming on this song made the song complete.

The performance took place on October 8th at 8pm at the newley renovated Northrop auditorium. The new acoustics of the venue added greatly to the overall performance. It really brought the auditorium to life and helped to take the viewer to a whole other place. I only regret that I wasn’t able to focus completely on the ensemble’s music due to being distracted by the exciting show the dancers were putting on.

Although I arrived a little late, I was able to find a cozy place at the bar close to the stage. When the band arrived they wasted no time and got ready to set up their equipment and got ready to play some music. They first connected the piano and brought out the bass. The band consisted of three members. I tried to Google names of the band members but with so many results coming up I wasn’t able to pin point which name belonged to whom. But that didn’t have any effect on what was about to happen on the stage. By getting a quick glance at the performers, two of them looked to be of Asian heritage while the bass player looked white, and more or less appeared to be the band leader as well.

MUS 110CL Concert Critique Guidelines and Rubric After either attending a live concert or watching a full length concert online, write a critique of the performance following the format below. Here are a few examples of full length concerts you can find online (by conducting a web search using the criteria below) that could be used for this assignment:         Coldplay Live In Boston 2012 (Full Concert DVD) Sting: If on a winters night-Live from Durham Cathedral 2009 (watch all 14 songs on concert) Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman, Jan Hammer, Charlie Duke Ellington The Great Paris Concert Richard Galliano/Winton Marsalis - Billie Holiday meets Edith PIAF Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Jazz Center

In summary, the band played several different songs that I was familiar with even though I will admit, this was my first ever swing music concert. Their music crawls up under your skin and makes you want to move to the beat and just dance. It was

The concert I chose to do my concert report is on Bucks Vibe. The date of the concert was July 15, that started around 8:00 PM. The location of the venue that Bucks Vibe performed at was the Steamers Jazz Club in Fullerton. As soon as I walked into Steamers Jazz Club, I noticed that the environment and the outlook of the place looks as it is in movies. This place seems like a really great place to listen to live music. Unfortunately, I was seated along the wall and I couldn’t see that much but that is okay. Before Bucks Vibe was getting ready to perform, Peter Buck introduced the musicians in the band which was Peter Buck on the drums, Jamelle Williams on the trumpet, Jamieson Trotter on the piano, and Lyman Medeiros on the bass. Peter Buck