Lenoir-Rhyne University Jazz Ensemble Concert Report

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 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 NafME Collegiate Recital recital was quite fascinating and interesting. There was a sense of elegance, amituer, and fun in the air. It took place at the Hughes Recital Hall in the Josephine Campbell Recital Hall. I went with my friend who thankfully knew where he was going or else I probably would have had troubles getting there. It was a nice building where you could feel the passion for music. The Josephine Hall itself was small, but professional. We found our seat and waited for the show to begin.

On November 14th, the Lawrence University Jazz Workshop, under the direction of José Encarnación, played a concert of five tunes in Harper Hall. This ensemble consisted of a full rhythm section, six saxophones, a trombone and a cello making up the trombone section, and four trumpets. The purpose of this concert was to demonstrate what the Jazz Workshop had been working on throughout fall term as well as function as a final exam. Over the course of about 40 minutes, they played five pieces of different styles that featured and challenged different parts of the ensemble.

Smithville High School presented two winter concerts. I got the opportunity to view both performances. The first show was by the Vocal Music Department directed by Mr. Marcus Duncan and aided by accompanist Emily Rowland, and the second show was by the Jazz Ensemble and Symphonic Band conducted by Mr. Tom Brockman and Ms. Brittany Terwey. There were very similar aspects of the two concerts and very different aspects of the two concerts.

On May 13, 2016, the Vocal Jazz Ensembles at Sacramento State University had their one of the last concerts before the semester ended, which was directed by our professor Gaw Vang Williams. This concert was performed by four groups and different solo, which was completely different experience from the first two concerts that I attended at Sac State. In this Vocal Jazz concert, there was packed and a lot of audiences who were friends, family and students come to support and enjoy before this semester ended. Overall, this was a good show and I found that Vocal Jazz was much more fun and enjoyable than the first two. In this concert, I enjoyed every pieces of performance and there were three pieces that caught my attention, which were “Hold On”,

The concert that I chose to attend was performed by The Auburn Symphony Orchestra. Which was led by musical director and conductor Peter Jaffe. In addition, his son James Jaffe, a renowned cellist, accompanied the ensemble with a beautiful solo performance. There are three pieces that are instrumented by the symphonic orchestra. The first piece is Dances from Cake Walk, by Hershy Kay. The second piece is Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody, by Ernest Bloch, and the third piece is Symphony No.9 in E minor, op.95, “From the New World” by Antonin Dvorak. All three of these pieces originated in the early 19th century.

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.

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.

I attended the Jazz Ensemble I on December 5th, 2017 at the Light Recital Hall. To help me better understand these works I had googled the event name and looked it up on youtube as well. There were brochures provided at the venue; however there weren’t enough for each individual to receive one. I had chosen to attend this concert because I believed I would enjoy a jazz ensemble performance more than I would’ve enjoyed attending any of the other types of musical events. Prior to this particular concert I was expecting to see and hear different variations of jazz music. This specific jazz concert was a holiday/christmas edition. It featured all of UW-Whitewater's jazz groups. They used several trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a bass guitar and

On Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 5:00 p.m., the Division of Music at Bob Jones University presented the Woodwind Ensembles and performed eight movements. Robert Chest and Esther Waite directed the performance in Stratton Hall at Bob Jones University. The program included Toccata in G Major for Flute Quintet by Theodore Dubois; Suite for Four Equal Clarinets by T. Stewart Smith; Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 51, No. 1 by Tranquille Berbiguier; Divertimento for Clarinet Quartet by Alfred Uhl; Trio in A Major, Op. 59, No. 6 by Kaspar Kummer; Adagio, K. 411 by W. A. Mozart; Scherzo Capriccio by Clair W. Johnson; and Stephen Foster’s America by Stephen C. Foster. Each of the eight movements were met with enthusiastic applause and praise.

The performance the Orange County Wind Ensemble was absolutely entertaining. Right off the bat I noticed an odd trait, they had a cello in the band. I thought that it was odd, but when used it was used well and with finesse. The conductor was full of energy, excitement, and enthusiasm. He would jump up in the air, wave his hands wildly, and filled the room with excitement. It was obvious that he was having fun, which made the experience all the more enjoyable. The size of the room only complemented the band, I could hear every note clearly.

The concert ended at 9.20 PM, the audiences felt happy and gave applause to all of the musicians.  I am also happy and astonished with the music, I have already changed my mind about jazz music. If there is jazz concert like this, I will attend the concert. Since the music made some development with the genre, the composing music is the difference from other jazz music, the composer mixed the jazz music and pop music. It was an incredible music development.

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

While I think there were some mistakes, like bowings and being out of tune, I think the overall performance sounded good. Only a few individuals made small mistakes, but because it was a small ensemble it was noticeable. While practicing with the small ensemble, I think it was hard for everyone to agree on things because there were so many different opinions and voices. I also think we should have practiced more at home because individual instruments were out of tune and/or not on the right rhythm. I also think i was hard to practice all together and get work done because so many different people needed help on specific sections which was time consuming and could have just been practiced at home. Yet I think we all did a good job staying together as a group with our tempo and looking at our first violinist for cues. I highly enjoyed the ability to chose our own song because it was a song that almost all of us enjoyed playing and had fun learning. I also liked when the other groups gave us feedback on what we could improve in our song, because it gave an outside opinion and was very