The Performance Art Center On Texas State University 's Campus

I stood up in front of a hundred curious, gleaming eyes. “Hey guys,” I began, “I’m going to show you why the trombone is the coolest brass instrument ever!” I immediately whipped the slide out and performed a series of sequential glissandos, each one with more vigor than the last. That morning, I was performing with my school’s jazz band at the KIPP Elementary Academy in Philadelphia. Over a decade passed since I had last stepped foot in a Philadelphia school, when I attended the James Dobson School in kindergarten, yet the cozy gymnasium and the children’s crisp uniforms instantly evoked memories of my childhood. But one thing I did not remember from the past was having the opportunity to experience jazz at a young age. Thus, I desperately wanted to display the awesome power of brass instruments that is the soul of jazz music and inspire the kids to partake in the timelessly euphoric journey of music that I am blessed to have taken.

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 listening to “The Santé Fe Jazz Combo,” you get a mellow feeling that courses through your body. Their opener “Recorda-Me,” which was my favorite piece, featured solos from Dr. Hamilton on Piano, Spencer Hoefert on Guitar, Ben Salhanick on Bass, Doc B on Alto Sax, Wyatt Thomas on Trombone, and Noah Woolard on Drum Set. The song had a moderate swing tempo that kept your feet tapping up until the solo. First, the brass rang through their part, then the electric instruments. Next came the bass; he was strumming so fast but he was barely audible. The pianist busting through with a tricky piano rift and the drummer finished it off with an intense solo. Every rim-shot sent a jolt into the air like lightning and the buzz rolls sounded like thunder. Noah’s part reminded me why I love playing the drums.

The University of Alabama Faculty Jazz Band along with guest player, Bill Peterson the jazz pianist, made up a chamber ensemble and performed beautiful and upbeat jazz music. The faculty members include Tom Wolfe, the guitarist, Chris Kozak, the bass player, and Mark Lanter, the drummer. The entire concert was played in a major key and had nothing but positive energy. The pieces and players were extremely creative and they managed to tell a story and create beautiful imageries through the changing sounds, rhythms, melodies, keys and texture.

The University of Redlands Wind Ensemble, directed by Eddie R. Smith, put on a show at the Memorial Chapel on Tuesday, November 16th. Walking into the monumental Chapel I was unsure of what to expect. As I walked in I saw the amazing artwork around, the high ceilings, and a wide variety of instruments scattered on different levels of the stage. On the first level there were many small hand held instruments such as flutes and clarinets, on the second there were a wide variety of brass instruments, and finally in the last row were the percussion instruments. Knowing that it was a wind ensemble and not a traditional orchestra like the ones we have been made familiar with during this course, I was unsure of what to expect. I thought that

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

If you did not make it out to see The Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday, Apr. 19th, then you really missed out on a great evening of music. Family, friends, and jazz lovers nearly filled the Anne R. Belk Theater to watch and listen to the performance directed by Dr. Will Campbell, with special guest Derrick Gardner. Gardner is a highly accomplished jazz trumpet player, who has traveled the world playing jazz music.The Ensemble member are; Bryce Harris, Jonathan Carroll, Cody Belton, Garrett Brown and Bryan Patterson on the saxophone, Richard Hall, Casey Blackwelder, Wesley Taylor, Liam McMahon and Cameron Francis on the trumpet, Nathan Ricer, Patrick Foray, Virginia Crooks and Kyle Barnhardt on the trombone, Dallas Holder on the piano, Brian Gilbert on the guitar, and Colin Ray and Eric Chang on the drums. The Ensemble played seven songs, and four of those were played with Gardner. The songs were performed in this order “A Pair of Aces,” “You Must Believe in Spring,” “Count Me In,” “Big Dipper,” “Footprints,” “Just a Touch” and “Lil’ Fawdy.” All of the songs were performed exceptionally well, out of the seven these two were my favorite.

The first song played was “Hope Street” written by Tom Harrell. The piece was started off with Jerald snapping his fingers to a quick beat and then the Trumpet (Lynn) starts with a loud entrance. The other musicians join in and copy his notes as he plays. When the trumpet hits the high notes he trills the note as he holds it before dropping back down in PITCH to match the rest of the instruments. The bass, drums, and guitar carry the beat and the trumpet and trombone take turns playing in a sort of solo. As the trumpet and trombone fall back into rhythm with the other instruments the tempo becomes quick and the guitar take the lead in the piece. All three “solos” mirror each other in notes and TEMPO as the rest of the instruments keep the rhythm and beat. All instruments join in at the same note and continue playing together now in a

“Minor Mystery,” the first piece played by the group, was composed and arranged by Ellen Rowe. This song is a minor blues that is normally set to be played at a medium swing, however, this performance was taken at a slightly faster pace. This allowed for the piece to be played with more energy, rather than just standing still. “Minor Mystery” is a work that lets the ensemble demonstrate their stylistic technique. This piece is riddled with dynamic contrasts and notations such as marcatos, accents, and tenutos. This proved to be a challenge, due to the fact that not everyone has the same concept of how these notes should be played. While learning and rehearsing this song, stylistic concepts were probably what we spent the most time on. In order to really sound together and like one cohesive unit, the perfection of these articulations was crucial.

The ensemble was more colorful with the addition of guitar solos as well as saxophone solos. Although having many solos, the ensemble came together as a whole for this song and heightened the melody by blending well when there wasn’t a solo. This piece was the

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.

The jazz music ensemble played a total of 8 pieces from several different composers. One piece that stuck out to me in particular was the song, “Jazz Crimes” composed by Joshua Redman but performed by Steve Houghton. What attracted me to this song was the prestissimo tempo. It was not hard to pick up on to the fast beat, do to the fact that the artists were tapping their feet at a very high rate. I noticed that there were many solos throughout the entire piece, leading me to believe that the song could be classified as a sonata. “Jazz Crimes” has a concert overture because, it does not precede a larger piece of music.

The swing bands showed a highly organized approach to performing Jazz. Fletcher Henderson’s band started the evolution that established the legacy for big bands to follow, both white and black. Henderson’s band merge into the sections we now call big bands, the contrapuntal lines necessarily became more formalized and thereby less improvised. “The first signs of sectional activity appeared in the clarinet trios that is heard in Jelly Morton’s arrangements.” There are four sections including, the sax, trumpet, trombone and, rhythm section of the classic big band.

To play this set of 11 original compositions, he convened a robust four-horn frontline that includes Tony Malaby on saxophones, Oscar Noriega on clarinets, Dave Ballou on trumpet, and Peter McEachern on trombone. Teaming up with him in the rhythm section is the drummer Michael Sarin, a longtime collaborator, who earned the drummer's chair once again.

On Thursday April 25, 2013 , I attended a jazz vocal concert at the Music Concert Hall. The first vocal ensemble opened up the performance with a slow rhythmic song called Blue Skies. It began with vocals and I noticed a light auxiliary percussion and drum rhythm. Also, the bass guitarist used walking bass and the piano and electric guitar joined in as well. The first song also consisted of two soloist Regina and Chantel who took the front stage to show off their chops. After the solo performances they fell back into the vocal sections and finished off the song as a complete band. The second performance had a piano opening which led to vocals joining in at the same time as the rhythm section. This performance