Concert Analysis: Jazz Bands

On May 26, 2016, the Jazz Ensemble at Cal State La decided to have a concert called Jazz combos. The meaning behind the name was the fact that there wasn't only one Jazz band performing but in fact four groups getting to show the students including outside people their talent. The jazz ensemble combos consisted of : Faith +1, Los Nombres, Alt+f4, Something Really Meta. Each group collectively performed three to four song, 14 all together. You would think that since all of these groups would sound the same since they are all doing the same genre, but the fact that each group had their own uniqueness is what made the concert intriguing. Although all groups were interesting, I will talk about the two pieces that these groups covered which in …show more content…
By in the the early 1940s “ Lover Man ”, was a song that was originally written by Jimmy Davis, Roger Ramirez and James Sherman. This song was originally sung by Billie Holiday around that time as well and Jenny Tran was the voice that covered it in the concert. In this version, you could hear the sounding of the assonance set the romantic/sexual mood by the tone that the singer was giving. Not only that but it felt like the audience were at a restaurant and everyone was just feeling it, nodding their heads. Almost like everyone wants to get up and dance, but sadly we could not do that. The piece felt calm and relaxing as it …show more content…
This piece was voice by Rachael Schlenz. This piece began by having a dissonant tones as you listen to the piano and drums slowly play back to back. The song then changed into more consonant harmony, which remained throughout the rest of the extended dialogue that sounded like dancing and twirling in a french restaurant. Since the song is made in both french in english, but the performers decided to sing the original song. Throughout the piece it was soft and would often go to a moderate level before going back to a weak beat. Basically causing a syncopation within their piece. The texture of the piece was a polyphonic between the piano and drums. The melody of this song was bright and happy throughout the song and high temp at the same time. There we so many dynamics used within this song. First, began soft beat then carried on into a loud beat and slowly later on it repeated the pattern of going back and forth with the beats until the very end. The vocals of the singer fit perfectly with the instruments, going slow and smooth. Although there was hardly any dancing, I would often see the singer sway back and forth causing the audience to use her as guidance in so doing the