Live Jazz Concert Reflection

The beginning sounded similar to a salsa type of music due to the drum’s rhythm on the crash cymbal. Each musician had a solo within each piece. The rhythm section (double bass and drums) did a phenomenal job at maintaining as well as driving the tempo when it felt dragging. Moreover, they displayed great control and maturity of their sound throughout their solos. The dexterity and mastery within their instrument of some of the soloist in this group is inspiring because it truly shows their years and years of practice and

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.

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

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 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 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 first two shows didn’t leave much of an impression on me because of the pacing but the final show stood out from them. The curtains were pulled away and a bright blue, yellow aura bounded around the stage. Dancers began to take their place, yet they were far from the center of the stage. The most dancers out of any performance before were just about to begin and then the smooth jazz-like music roared out to the audience.

After peaking though my program to better understand what to expect throughout the concert, I realized there were going to be two performances with 2 different ensembles as well as directors. Promptly at 7:30 pm, the band of Jazz Ensemble II came out, gathered their places on stage, and began to play “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be” by Mercer Ellington. I immediately recognized the stereotypical jazz setup such as the primary melodic instruments: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, as well as the piano, bass and

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.

As I observed the stage I noticed that there were a variety of instruments played in the jazz ensemble. The instruments that were played included string (grand piano, electric guitar, electric bass, bass), brass (trumpet, trombone, French horn), woodwind (tenor sax, alto sax, baritone sax) and percussion instruments (six piece drum set, bongos). On the drum set was, special guest, Steve Houghton from the music school of Iowa.

On October 13, I attended a concert by the UT Jazz orchestra at the Bates Recital Hall. This performance consisted of seven pieces and all were stylistically different, which allowed the audience to enjoy the various sounds of jazz music. Among the instrument groups, there are saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano and drums. Professor Jeff Hellmer served as director andJohn Mills appeared as guest conductor. The whole concert made a lasting impression on me.

In the origin of Jazz the more frequently used instruments were the violin, piano, and the clarinet. The most trendy Jazz types were Ragtime, Bebop, and Contemporary. “Most early jazz was played by small bands, performing for dancing or at social occasions including picnics and funerals, or by solo pianists (“Jazz” n.d para. 11).”

The jazz band performance was phenomenal! The jazz band consisted of saxophones, trumpets, tubas, pianos, guitars, basses, and percussions. The band had the audience enthused by their solo performances and their musical style. Each of the band’s performance had me inspired by the meaning and idea of the story, memorable features, and more.

The instrumentation of the show included a piano, bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet, fugal horn, and soundboard. The use of popular jazz instruments further reveals the performer’s intention to give the audience a taste of the sentimental, antique tones of jazz music. As the instrumentation reveals the genre of the music being performed, the stage for the show was set up in a way that highlighted the artists performing solos during the improvisational pieces. For example, the use of lights played a large role in visually isolating the soloists. The lights used during the show only illuminated the performers that were located upstage, while there were no lights used to illuminate downstage. Thus, as performers were not playing in the piece they would move downstage into the darkness. This would cause the focus of the audience to shift to the other performers that were still playing. The intentional movement of the artists downstage reveals the artist’s intent to highlight each individual instrument in the sextet and the improvisational skills of the artist playing them. Also, the visual depiction of an artist emerging from the shadows located downstage and playing prompted the audience to clap. The clapping was also prompted after a musician finishes the personal solo improvisational piece within a song. The clapping from the audience when an instrument

One performance I attended this semester was the Lenoir-Rhyne University Jazz Ensemble’s concert on November 13. The ensemble's performance was exciting and entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed all ten song selections. Throughout the entire performance, a clear sound was produced along with great tone quality. Additionally, the intonation was great across all instruments, not only in the opening pieces, but for the entire concert. However, in a few places, articulations could have been more clear and consistent. Overall, dynamics were well executed and the transitions between dominance with different instruments were smooth. Contrastly, the ensemble as a whole could have backed off more dynamically during certain solos. All the solos were