Personal Narrative: My First Jazz Concert

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

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.

When I arrived at Henry’s I went through a coffee shop and then up a set of stairs. As I walked up the stairs I started to smell a different smell from the coffee shop below. It smelled like an old house mixed with the faint smell of beer and very subtle cigarette scent. The upstairs was very cozy. When I was there, there were about 10 audience members and you could call the place “packed”. The feeling you get in this environment is definitely a pub feel. When I go to performances I am accustomed to them being formal and this was on the other end of the spectrum. I felt very relaxed being here and everyone else seemed this way from my observations. There was no real set up for the musicians. There wasn’t a stage, sheet music or stands. They just played in the booths. The people in the audience seemed to be diverse in age but along with the musicians the most common age group attending was middle-aged. The audience members seemed to have connections with the musicians and know about the music and musical instruments that they were playing. This makes me believe that the people who come and watch are regulars at Henry’s.

On Friday night, November 13, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. I attended the Manhattan School of Music for the Jazz Orchestra that performed by Jazz vocalists and MSM alumni Jane Monheit and many other musicians. That place is unlikely the ordinary place, people have appropriate dress on and have nicely etiquette toward the performers, unlike me, many of audiences seem like that they come to this concert with certain knowledge of Jazz orchestra. And its musical venue was the ideal spot for the concert, so I sat in a decent spot spot that located at midst of the concert hall where I can view all the performers and hear performers’ music clearly. And the conductor informally began the show was quite nicely and politely which made me feel really comfortable

Jazz is a genre of music, originated in African American communities in late 19th century, is a relaxing music. On March 15, 2015, Vallejo Jazz Society organized Jazz music by Lavay Smith And The Red Hot Skillet Lickers. I went to this concert on the evening of Sunday. I enjoyed the music. It was hard to understand the lyrics, but I like her voice, and the instrument played during concert. It is hard to understand English music for me, First I was looking for Punjabi concert but I was unable to find. Then I decided for jazz music (folk music), I asked some people about jazz music. They said it is nice music and encouraged me to go to the concert. I went to concert in Vallejo by Lavay Smith, who is known as queen of jazz.

On Tuesday, April 12th 2016 I went to Chris Jazz Café to see a live Jazz performance from three young artists; Dave D’Arville the Temple Jazz Guitarist, Alex Cross the Pianist, Mat Campbell was on the Bass and Phil Arrington was on the Drums. The show started at 7 pm and ended at 10 however, at 8:30 there was an intermission. Chris Jazz café was on a little block called Sansom Street, at first it was hard to find because the hotel parking sign covered the Jazz sign. When you first walk in, the hosts greet you and ask if you want to sit near the stage or in the back a one of the high-top tables. The atmosphere of the place was really nice, it was good vibes and so relaxed; the café felt safe to be alone that evening.

The concert I went to was The Sue Palmer and the Motel Swing Quintet on March 14th at Tio Leo’s in Linda Vista. Within the quintet there was Sue Palmer, Deejha Marie, Pete Harrison, Sharon Shufet, and Jonny Viau. Sue Palmer was the pianist who has been playing jazz music for decades all over the world with top name composers and arrangers. Deejha Marie was the vocalist for the group, Pete Harrison played the bass, Sharon Shufet played the drums, and Jonny Viau played the tenor sax and baritone sax depending on the song. The ambience of the concert didn’t have that old-school jazz concert feel. It was at a Mexican restaurant on its bar side. The bar had minimal lighting, booths around the stage, confetti looking banners across the ceiling,

I got the chance to attend the Jazzy Stars late concert at the Acme Lounge in the Arts and Entertainment district in Miami, Florida. The band that performed was called Lemon City Trio. Lemon City Trio has three bands members that go by the names Brian Robertson, Nick Tannura, and Aaron Glueckauf. The jazz concert consisted of two sets of ten songs that lasted for about two hours. Brian Robertson played the organ, Nick Tannura played guitar, and Aaron Glueckauf played drums. This was the first live concert of any genre that I got to attend.

The second weekend in April was solely dedicated to Brown’s jazz festival, which he was very proud to call the largest jazz festival within the county. Honestly, no one knew if he was telling the truth or not, but it was best to just nod your head and agree with him. Especially now that he was reiterating this “fact” right before we were supposed to go and perform for said jazz festival. He did this very same thing last night too.

The concert I decided to go to was held in Valley Brewing Company. The event was called “Take 5, Jazz at the Brew”. I went to the show July 11, 2013. The group I saw didn’t have a name. It was just a group of people performing together. The concert hall was a very nice venue. It was on an extended closed off area past the common area at the bar. The area was very dim lit and was decorated very fancy and elaborate. The music that was played that night was Jazz.

Over the weekend, I had the unique opportunity to be sponsored by The Lincoln Motor Company to attend the Long Beach Jazz Festival. My first time attending the event, and it came with a world of wonderful perks.

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:

Never could I have thought that my first concert experience was going to be in a college class, performed by various composers of classical music. During the concert, I got to listen to four performances. First, the Oxycotton was played by Tim Sanchez. Second, Samantha Post played Acht Stucke on flute, followed by Nicholas Gledhill, playing Blues and Variations for Monk on horn. Finally, the CSU Graduate Brass Quintet performed a piece named Misty. In this essay, I will share my personal experience of the concert and discuss the different elements of music seen in the different performances.

Music has been around for centuries and has taken many, unique forms over the past hundreds of years. Every culture, big or small, has their own different style of music. Music has evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life. I have been to many different instrumental performances, but this was my first concert that I attended since I have been at LSU. The setting of this event was that it was located at the Union Theatre, and it started at 7:30 pm. The Union Theatre was an amazing venue. I walked through the front doors and into the lobby of the theatre, where a person was waiting in the box office to take my money and give me a ticket. When I received by ticket, I was handed a program and went inside the theatre. The theatre

I went there because of the recommendation of my professor and I will never regret about it. It was in a small auditorium with a capacity of almost 150 seats and it was partially full. There was a small stage with a grand royal on the left-hand side and a drum set in the back. The concert started with an ensemble of jazz guitar playing old and new American style jazz music of famous and not very famous composers. There were 4 guitar players two of them were students and two of them were teachers. It was a big surprise for me that among them was also my professor Byron Delto. Although I knew before that that her wife is the director of that concert, presence of my professor as a performer was a good surprise for me. There was nothing special considering the interior of that place. The only thing that mattered were the performers themselves. As I found out later most of the performers were students and this concert was some kind of final exam for them to pass this class some kind of final project. For me was a great pleasure to participate in this big event in the very beginning of their career