Jazz Music

I went to recital hour and heard The College Concert Jazz Band. They were a big band that consisted of various instruments such as: alto and tenor saxophones, trumpets, trombones, drums, bass, guitar and piano. They played Swing, Swing, Swing, Sunny Side of the Street, Bebop Charlie, which is a song that is a transition between swing and bebop, Blues for Sita, which was played by the big band and was intended to sound like a small band, It Had to be You, which featured a guest vocalist named Stav Sokolov, and Howdiz Songo?, which was a salsa style piece and it featured Charlie Chavez, who was awesome. I am going to write about Swing, Swing, Swing by Marty Conley and Blues for Sita by Mike Barone. The first song I’m going to write about is Swing, Swing, Swing. The beat of this song was strong and dominate, while the tempo was played very quickly giving the song’s tone color a bright, high energy, dancing feel to it and the overall volume was loud. The horns also added to the rhythm by adding a lot of syncopation throughout the piece as they played extra loud accent notes with high pitches. The theme of the song had variations between the big band and the soloists that created a call and response between the two as well. Since it was a big band playing this piece the instruments included: saxophones, trumpets, bass, trombones, etc. so it essentially had the sound of a marching band. The trumpet solo had a fast tempo and it was played at a loud volume, whereas when the bass and drums played the volume soften up, while the tempo was still being played fast. While this song was written music it seemed there was room for improvisation for the soloists, I noticed the saxophone player close his eyes a few times during his part. The second song I’m going to write about is Blues for Sita. This song is played by the entire big band but is intended to sound like a small band. It is in the form of the blues and is played in a minor key. The tempo starts out slow with a low pitch in the beginning, then the band gradually crescendos to a louder volume. The saxophone and drums played a homophonic texture, as the saxophones played one melody and the drums accompanied with the harmony. That eventually led into the call and response, with the alto saxophone and trumpet responding. They created syncopation with loud accent notes. As the tenor saxophone was playing his solo it seemed he could have added some elements of improvisations, there were also accent notes played by the big band while he was doing his solo. The solo’s tone color was mellow and had a dark feel to it. Overall I really enjoyed every piece that was played at this concert. I loved when Charlie Chavez played the drums/bells and I also liked the very talented singer, Slav Sokolov. I thought this concert show cased every instrument throughout each song with different solos. The power behind all those instruments was memorizing and you could easily see how much work the musicians put into these pieces. I liked the variety of song choices, there was a little bit of everything, from a loud, marching band piece, to a fast tempo bebop, to slower tempo blues, and some salsa for something different. This concert definitely held my attention from beginning to end.