Uic Vocal Jazz Ensemble Concert Report

The concert opened with A Moorside Suite from England; it began quietly accompanied by the clarinet and saxophone. The tempo started out slowly, then shifted to fast and back again to slow, throughout the entire piece. There was an appearance of a few soloists including the oboe, clarinet, and saxophone. This movement ended with the entire orchestra leading to a final chorale that builds to a fortissimo climax.

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.

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 7:00p.m. in the school auditorium, the Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts’ vocal department held their annual vocal cabaret, which involved the audience, a few lights, and a good amount of inspired singers/musicians. Mr. Gary Stroh, head of the vocal department, let the students take over when it came to performing. He allowed his students to introduce acts, play their own instruments, and run the concessions outside of the performance area. The

I chose to attend a jazz concert at UNCW on September 28th, 2016. The musicians playing were: Jerald Shynett on trombone, Andy Whittington on piano, Natalie Boeyink on bass, Justin Hoke on guitar and Michael D’Angelo on drums. There were two special guests playing with this ensemble: Lynn Grissett on trumpet and Ryan Mulder on saxophone (joined them on stage for only a few select pieces).

The band was directed by Jordan Sayre and Arnold Rose. The band started off with “Perdido Arranged by Roland Barret/Juan Tizol”. For a high school band they had very strong beginning, the song was very fast tempo, and lots of bold accents through the piece. The tenor sax was really the star of this piece the band was really following him instead the tenor sax kind of keeping time and beat. The band played about 2 more songs and LCHS Jazz I came on to stage about played another 3 songs as well. One the played was Called “The Chicken arranged by Kris Berg/Alfred James”. This songs included a lot of saxophones solos from alto sax to baritone sax. The trumpet also played a big part to for solo, this piece they did lot of crescendos as well as decrescendos. It gave a more bold jazz feeling which I really enjoyed. Last but not least the NMSU jazz I came about on the stage to finish out the concert. They had four songs to play instead of three like the other bands. They started off with “Cell Talk composed by Sammy Nestico”. This piece was a calmer piece like a modern typical jazz piece. There was great transitions as well bold accents through the pieces. The band ends with a piece called “Uno Mas composed by Paul Lopez”. This piece was more fast tempo as well bold accents was well especially from the trumpets. It gave me more a swing vibe it was super neat to hear. This piece was perfect

The program was the American Music Journey, which was music that was played from when George Washington was president to modern day music. In the program there was a description of the ensemble, but no list of the pieces that they were going to be playing. The audience was pretty big, the auditorium was about three fourths filled. I think everyone enjoyed what was played that night. One of the bigger reactions was when the lights went out and the whole ensemble came out playing the theme to Pink Panther with lights on their instruments that would flash whenever they played a note. Once the lights started coming back on, you could see that all the members had on black sunglasses.

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.

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

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.

Pierce sang “Work in progress” by Jason Mraz. Junior Mustiquirr Muhammad and the choir went next and sang “Ultralight beam” by Kanye West.

Next up is Paul Desmond, who comes in with a cool, catchy alto sax groove that really defines the song and is one of its most prominent aspects. Meanwhile, in the background, we can hear Gene Wright using a two note walking baseline to give the song a little more rhythm. The song has a fast catchy tempo and is played in 5/4 time which is a complex time signature to play at, which just goes to show how uniquely gifted each member of the quartet is. After the songs signature bit, the quartet transitions into Paul Desmond's improv sax solo. This solo is followed by Brubeck's own solo which is utterly wild in the speed in which he plays. Even more impressive is his seamless transition from the solo back into the main section to close off the song. Once Brubeck finishes his solo, the band returns to play the main section out, and round off a great performance of a legendary song. The audience is seen standing up and cheering which most likely led to a standing ovation. I think the most impressive part of this performance was just how seasoned all the band members were with their respective instruments. Joe Morello stood out the most simply because of how skilled he was alongside of him being blind, which was just mind boggling to

The tune was hot and enthusiastic and shown dialogue without using any words. The ensemble played this piece by Cassia Lee supplied the drawn-out conversation that sounded like twirling and dancing in the moonlight with the solo as well as steadiness. This tune reminded me of “My Heart Will Go On” in that a story is told of the instrumental nature of it, just as much as when the lyrics are being sung by Celine Dion. I found listening to this tune a rewarding experience, and it turned out to be a wonderful start to the jazz concert in that it was not unfamiliar to the crowd. “Waltz for Debby’ got me question why someone would write this kind of old and whom Debby was -sounding tune for someone he or she loved. It 's really difficult for me to advocate this song to anybody, for I lacked the depth of the other tunes through the entire evening and believed it was boring. “Ancient Memories” was a piece that is wonderful. The tune was enjoyment and I loved listening to the changes over and over again, although the tune had lots of repetition. The Jazz Ensemble concert at Tarleton was an enjoyable evening full of intellectually exciting encounters of music and excellent music that I wouldn 't have listened to if not for this duty. Diversification is an important lesson to learn when seeing music because all music has roots from a different music genre and understanding this makes you more diversified as somebody.

The second vocal ensemble of the night started out with a song which included a twelve bar blues, called “ I use to know you”. This performance consisted of the most combinations of solos of the night as well as using an improvising style. The entire band started all together which led to a Trumpet solo. Then Jose on the Sax did his solo followed by the pianist comping. Then the choir along with the band joined together to lead to a female solo which was particularly interesting since she was scatting. The second performance of this ensemble was “Spring can really hang you up the most” which consisted of 3/4 time and 4/4 time. This started with a female solo vocalist then a male one. The band as a whole played together and ended with a male solo scatting. The third and shortest performance of the night was a vocal acapella piece, “Love walked in” which was short and sweet. The fourth performance of the night was a Richmond Rogers piece. This had a rhythmic swing/salsa feel from the “Lady is a tramp”. This started with the rhythm section, with the male vocalist and horns. Then the female vocalist from the choir joined and concluded this piece. The fifth performance for the group was a sequel to voice stand an acapella piece by Greg Jaspers. This song started with the choir using their voices as the instruments altogether. The final performance of the night was one of