A Jazz Concert Critique

I, Luzinda Dominguez, attended a jazz concert at the University of Texas at San Antonio on February 16, 2017. The performance was begin put on by the music department of the UTSA, the title of the performance was named “UTSA Jazz Ensemble”. The director of this performance was Dr. Adrian Ruiz. Being that I am new to jazz music it really became an eye opener for me. Going into the performance it was a real eye opener for me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it or not. As soon as the first song played, titled “Miss Fine” by Oliver Nelson I knew I was in for a good treat! As the concert progressed I began to associate a lot of things going on with the information that I had learned about in class, for example, the call and response and improvisation. One main object I did learn about in class and was very obvious for me at the concert was the mutes …show more content…
“As Time Goes By” and “Everyday I Have the Blues” had a vocalist named Alex Aguirre. Aguirre did such an amazing job in hitting some very low notes. He truly did sound like a jazz male vocalist by hitting some very low notes, he was also able to create a raspy voice while still sounding amazing. Additional point on diversity was most definably on the song “4a.m.” by Jamail Chachere- Stuart, as Dr. Ruiz referred to it as the “world premier” of this new song. I was really impressed by the fact that Stuart it still a student here at UTSA. At the beginning on the song, Stuart starts out by playing the keyboard. This really caught my attention, as mentioned before I am new to jazz, I didn’t know that an electric keyboard could be part of a jazz ensemble. It created a very fresh and live beat to the song. In the music of today most of the sounds don’t really come from instruments anymore, more like computers. I was really able to connect with the song because not only was it a bit digitalized, it related into the type of music I listen to