Concert Blog #1

The concert I attended for this post was Jazz Night at the TC Lounge on the 14th floor of East Tower on Thursday, September 20th. It was absolutely amazing! The night consisted of various members of the student jazz club playing a variety of jazz tunes, primarily improv. I could not believe how wildly talented the students were. The instruments used were a piano, a drum set, a distorted electric guitar, a bass cello, a saxophone, a trombone, and a trumpet. For each set, the various musicians would just wander on and off the "stage" area, which was really a barely sectioned off area where the instruments were. It amazed me how easily the musicians could play the improvised songs, they all flowed beautifully and never sounded dissonant or off. The theories we learned in class regarding cadences and staying in a specific key made me feel like it would take hours, if not days, to compose a piece that followed all of the rules and sounded great, but these people were able to make it up on the spot, incorporating PACs, IACs, and HCs and always, as far as I could tell, ending on a closed cadence. It amazed me! They all transitioned smoothly and simultaneously from forte to piano to complete silences followed by forte entrances.
I'm not sure of the names of the performers, it was a lot of musicians approaching and picking up their instrument, playing for a bit, then sitting back down, nothing was formal and no one was specifically introduced. In jazz music, the incorporation of a distorted guitar is unusual, but the songs with it used sounded wonderful and completely fit in with the jazz theme of the night. There was a bass solo played with a drum keeping a steady beat in the background, and the song was beautiful (and improvised!), but what really struck me was how passionate the bassist, and all of the musicians that performed, were. The bassist was grooving the entire time he was playing and everyone was smiling and having a blast while they were performing. Seeing how much fun they were having immeasurably increased my overall enjoyment of the night.
At one point, the bass and saxophone were playing together and the bassist began playing the melody of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and the saxophonist caught on and they played the melody together for a while. During this, a drummer, pianist, and guitarist stepped up and joined in; they then went off on a long stretch of improvisation and, without any cue, at least not that I could see, they circled back into the "Superstition" melody. The ebb and flow of the song amazed me, especially how well they transitioned to and from "Superstition" without it sounding dissonant.
There were vocalists incorporated as well, one of which sang his rendition of Nat King Cole's "Orange Colored Sky." His rendition, both the vocals and the instrumentation, was much smoother than Nat King Cole's, which made it flow better with the smooth, casual setting. The AABA form of this song, along with the jazz style, reminded me of "It Don't Mean a Thing" from the chapter reading we had.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the music and atmosphere of the jazz night, and will hopefully be attending every week!
Below are some pictures from the night: