Jazz Concert Essay

The music played throughout all of the concerts adhered to be diverse. The instruments, the individuals performing, and the conductor all proved to be outstanding. The concerts proved to be interesting as I witnessed them, first hand.

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.

The concert I attended was called the Faculty and Student Recital, which took place in the Cisco Auditorium on April 11, 2017. The music that was on the program was mostly what is called “classical” music, as well as a Chinese Folk Song, an electronic composition, and variations on an Indian Tala. In the classical pieces, the instruments that were used were the violin, the piano, the cello, and the oboe. In the electronic composition, the computer was used to make music. In the Chinese Folk Song, the piccolo was used to imitate the unique timbre of a Chinese flute. In the Indian tala, drums from Ghana were used to imitate the rhythm and sound of Indian drums. The piano, the violin, the cello, and the piccolo all originate

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 next song on the playlist was called “Everything Happens To Me”. The texture to this was very soft as well. The instruments were playing off each other but it was still a freestyle type of song. I think jazz is generally played like freestyle. There was no melody to this song. The rhythm was not existent as well. It was more of a free flowing song. This song had a very quiet dynamic. It sounded very romantic like something out of a movie. The tempo of the song was very slow and mild but the trumpet was going very fast. The cello and the drums had a portion of the song where they fed off each other’s energy and the trumpet was doing its own thing.

time I was going to a Jazz concert. I knew that I wouldn’t be disappointed or

The first formal small jazz concert was held at the Maum Café on Sep. 25th, 2008. There were many music performances have held at the Maum Café but Zino Park, leader of the band, and manager of Maum Café agreed to arrange a formal jazz concert for the first time. The main theme of this concert was “Smooth Jazz with Zino Park at Maum”. Before the concert began, the band members introduced themselves to the audience. The names of players were:

The “Summer Solstice Jazz Festival,” is the event that I have choice to attend and examine. This event occurred June 17th – June 18th, and was displayed in Downtown East Lansing. The artist performed authentic and classic pieces, which the pool of performers ranged from local/ national artist. What I found to be most interesting about the performance was the multitude or artist that performed his or her own pieces and the quality of their work. This experienced exposed me to the work that it actually takes to bring together a performance, meaning not just the music but also the choreography. I enjoyed the performance because it exposed me to new upcoming artist, which musical pieces encourage positivity.

Jazz music is a style of music that was created and became popular in the turn of the 19th century. It has even been called “America’s only true artform” because it is basically the only musical form created in the United States.This style music includes heavy improvisation as a key element, among things like syncopation and polyrhythms. The feeling of triplets is another important aspect in this genre music because it contributes a “swinging” feel to the music; this contrasts with the typical eighth note feel in most music. But because there are so many variations and subcategories to this genre, it is a bit difficult to get much further into a definition.

I enjoyed a wonderful jazz concert on Saturday night, to an audience about eighty people. Most of the audiences were college students and elders and it was not hard to tell that everyone was expecting this concert very much. At about 8:20pm, the concert started. Kei Akaji, the pianist and composer, introduced himself and his friends to the audience humorously and briefly. Then, 4 instruments assemble were gathering in the center of the stage and 10 wonderful jazz pieces was presented. Each piece lasted for 10-20 minutes in length and Akaji gave a brief introduction of each piece before the start. Led by Akaji, this concert combined classical jazz bass section and jazz form, but explored more possibilities of improvisation of modern jazz. Some of these pieces were written by Akaji himself and had his strong personal style. However, an interesting thing about this concert was that even though those four musicians were playing the same composition, they could express the same melody with their different personal styles.

The concert Jazz Standard live by Zvonimir Tot and Kelly Sill provided a great experience for understanding the Jazz music as a beginner to musical world. They just used a guitar and a bass for the whole concert. Dr. Tot played the guitar and Sill played the bass. I am not very familiar with European centered music, therefore I don’t have much knowledge about the styles and variations the artist is playing. But it was very interesting to experience an energetic show with just two instruments. In my opinion, the guitar had little more focus compared with bass, and it suited the theme very well. There were no fix rhythms, the music was polyrhythmic. Since the origins of jazz music is from Africa, it had pentatonic scale which is very commonly observed in Asian and African music.

You'd think that after more than 11 concerts the adrenaline of being on stage would have died down a bit. It hasn't. I've danced since I was 3 and every time I go onstage the rush is the same. Concert has always been the biggest event in May. I love it almost as much as the last day of school. Concert 2016 was my favorite out of all the years that I’ve danced.

Jazz was inspired by African-American folk music, Blues and Ragtime in the early 20th century and introduced in New Orleans. According to the text book “Discovering Humanities”, “Jazz was “the” American music, and was almost as popular in Paris and Berlin as it was in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans” (468). The first feature of Jazz is improvisation, when a song was played there is no specific arrangement, it is spontaneously elaborated around a specific song (Listen, 386). A second feature is that there is a rhythmic style that involves highly developed syncopation. Syncopation occurs when accents in

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

The first half of the classical era focused on simple and decorative music, while the second half witnessed the rise of thematic development, which focused on manipulating melodies for the intellectual enjoyment of exploring the possibilities inherent in a tune (Chiego, 2014, pg 11). This was evident in some of the pieces played throughout the concert. Some of the most notable composers for this time were Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz schubert. Jazz is dated back to the early twentieth century in America. It incorporates ragtime, blues, repeating chord progressions and improvisation (Chiego, 2014, pg 139). There are many different subgenres of Jazz, from New Orleans, to Chicago Style, to Big Band or Swing (Chiego, 2014, pg139-141).