On April 7, 2016, the GSU Jazz Combos came to play a riveting concert at the Georgia State Recital Hall. Two combos performed that night; the first was a quintet directed by David Frackenpohl, and the second combo of the night was an octet directed by Robert Dickson. The members constituting the first combo were bassist David Schroeder, drummer Zach Benator, guitarist Bob Tarkington, tenor saxophonist Chris Suarez, and vocalist Oriana Wisdom. The members of the second combo were bassist David Schroeder (once again), drummer Jordan Holiman, guitarists Daniel Melton and Alex Hassell, and alto saxophonists Stephen May and Rodney Allen. In addition, the second combo also featured Morehouse College students Dakarai Barclay and Wes Hunn on trumpet
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The first combo performed renditions of four popular Jazz standards: “Summertime” by 20th century American composer George Gershwin, “Bags and Trane" by Milt Jackson of the Modern Jazz Quartet fame, “Angel Eyes” by Matt Dennis and Earl Brent, and finally “One Note Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Excluding the instrumental “Bags and Trane”, each of the songs catered to complement vocalist Oriana Wisdom’s soulful singing and the call-and-response interplay of alto saxophonist Chris Suarez’s lyrical sax lines during the choruses. The combo opened the concert with Gershwin’s “Summertime”. The group perfomed the song in a slow ballad-esque form, arranged to highlight Wisdom’s luscious singing highly reminiscent of famed Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. The quiet intimacy of the piece was complemented by drummer Zach Benator’s subtle brushed rhythm and bassist David Schroeder’s slow crawling bass line. The group followed up with Milt Jackson’s “Bags and Trane”. This piece was rather unique to the rest of the set; not only was the song the only instrumental, but Benator switched over to play vibes while drummer Jordan Holiman of the second combo proceeded to cover drumming duties for the …show more content…
This combo similarly performed renditions of four jazz standards, all instrumental this time: “Groove Merchant” by Jerome Richardson, “Contemplation” by former Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner, “Só Danço Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and “Work Song” by Nat Adderly. Throughout the set, each soloist had a rather definitive soloing style and influences; trumpeter Dakarai Barclay played with technical bluesy stylings similar to Clifford Brown and a bit of Dizzy Gillespie, guitarists Daniel Melton and Alex Hassell took subtle cues from Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery (respectively), bassist David Schroeder carried some improvisational phrasing from Paul Chambers, tenor saxophonist Wes Hunn featured many technical runs that called out homage to Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist Stephen May had a bluesy approach that took influence from Cannonball Adderly, and strangest of all, alto saxophonist carried a very angular avant-garde approach seemingly influenced by latter-day John Coltrane and pianist Thelonious Monk. These differing stylings helped created a cohesive narrative of instrumental voices that kept each song extremely interesting throughout, which proved especially effective when handling some of the longer pieces of the set (primarily “Contemplation”). In an unorthodox comparison, the group worked akin in their improvisations similar to a rap collective such as the Wu-Tang Clan works, each
The first combo performed renditions of four popular Jazz standards: “Summertime” by 20th century American composer George Gershwin, “Bags and Trane" by Milt Jackson of the Modern Jazz Quartet fame, “Angel Eyes” by Matt Dennis and Earl Brent, and finally “One Note Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Excluding the instrumental “Bags and Trane”, each of the songs catered to complement vocalist Oriana Wisdom’s soulful singing and the call-and-response interplay of alto saxophonist Chris Suarez’s lyrical sax lines during the choruses. The combo opened the concert with Gershwin’s “Summertime”. The group perfomed the song in a slow ballad-esque form, arranged to highlight Wisdom’s luscious singing highly reminiscent of famed Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. The quiet intimacy of the piece was complemented by drummer Zach Benator’s subtle brushed rhythm and bassist David Schroeder’s slow crawling bass line. The group followed up with Milt Jackson’s “Bags and Trane”. This piece was rather unique to the rest of the set; not only was the song the only instrumental, but Benator switched over to play vibes while drummer Jordan Holiman of the second combo proceeded to cover drumming duties for the …show more content…
This combo similarly performed renditions of four jazz standards, all instrumental this time: “Groove Merchant” by Jerome Richardson, “Contemplation” by former Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner, “Só Danço Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and “Work Song” by Nat Adderly. Throughout the set, each soloist had a rather definitive soloing style and influences; trumpeter Dakarai Barclay played with technical bluesy stylings similar to Clifford Brown and a bit of Dizzy Gillespie, guitarists Daniel Melton and Alex Hassell took subtle cues from Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery (respectively), bassist David Schroeder carried some improvisational phrasing from Paul Chambers, tenor saxophonist Wes Hunn featured many technical runs that called out homage to Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist Stephen May had a bluesy approach that took influence from Cannonball Adderly, and strangest of all, alto saxophonist carried a very angular avant-garde approach seemingly influenced by latter-day John Coltrane and pianist Thelonious Monk. These differing stylings helped created a cohesive narrative of instrumental voices that kept each song extremely interesting throughout, which proved especially effective when handling some of the longer pieces of the set (primarily “Contemplation”). In an unorthodox comparison, the group worked akin in their improvisations similar to a rap collective such as the Wu-Tang Clan works, each