West Coast jazz

Jazz History Concert Report II For my final concert writing critique, I decided to attend the live Ball State Student Jazz Combos on Tuesday, November 8; this event took place in Choral Hall inside of the university’s Music Instruction Building. The wooden hall was smaller than I thought it would have been, but it gave the concert setting a more intimate feel. There were three groups presenting that day, each under a different director. Because each group did not have a specific name, I had to…

James Baldwin 's "Sonny's Blues" is the narrative of a youthful jazz performer (Sonny) from Harlem, NY who gets dependent on heroin, is captured for utilizing and offering medications, and comes back to his adolescence neighborhood after his discharge from jail. He moves in with his more established sibling (the story's storyteller) and his sibling's family. The two siblings kind of reconnect following an exceptionally tense couple of weeks amid which both endeavor to manage their outrage…

Why Suya Sing, a musical anthropology of an Amazonian people, is a book written by Anthony Seeger. Anthony Seeger is a professor, ethnomusicologist, archivist, anthropologist, and record producer. The title “Why Suya Sing” portrays the general idea of all ethnomusicologists, which is to further understand music in its cultural context (“What Is Ethnomusicology?”). Seeger is also the director emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The author tackled field research for the book at Mato…

The Power of Music: Classical Vs Comical The text “Rebel Music” by Daniel Felsenfeld and the text “Weirdly Popular” by Sasha Frere-Jones deal with the main idea of music and the affect it has on people. “Rebel Music” is about Daniel Felsenfeld’s transformation and discovery as a musician. It discusses his time as a child playing piano and listening to punk music, to later finding classical music and dreaming of becoming a composer, he even says in his article that “..., having long ago…

Blues and Jazz roots run deep into American History, clear back in 1600-1800’s; when slavery was a customary thing. African Americans working all day in the fields singing spiritual hymns with heavily syncopated rhythms, creating a style of music that was initially disliked called Ragtime. There laid the foundations for Blues and Jazz.…

During the final week of classes at Truman, I had the pleasure of hearing the school’s jazz bands in concert. During the concert, the Jazz Lab band and the Jazz Ensemble, both directed by Tim AuBuchon, played several jazz standards and modern favorites. The Jazz Lab band started out the night with five big band pieces. The instrumentation of the Jazz Lab band was standard for a big band; it included about four of each horn (saxophone, trumpet, and trombone), an upright bass, a piano, and a…

Placido Domingo is generally known as “the King of Opera”, as he is one of the most famous singers and composers of all time. Born on January 21, 1941, in Madrid, Spain, Domingo grew up in a very music oriented family. Both of his parents were singers of Spanish operas, and toured all around Spain with a troupe. When he was around the age of eight years old, he received his first piano lessons. He moved with his parents down to Mexico so they could start up their own zarzuela group, which helped…

John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is an American composer with strong roots in minimalism. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1947. Adams began composing at the age of ten and first heard his music performed around the age of 13 or 14. After he matriculated at Harvard University in 1965 he studied composition under Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, Earl Kim, and David Del Tredici. He earned two degrees from Harvard University (BA 1969, MA 1972). His piece "American Standard"…

Having grown up in China, I was raised in a culture that is different from American culture in various ways. Coming from a family that pays a lot of attention to home education, many traditional Chinese virtues have been taught to me, including being respectful to others, being modest and diligent. The decision of came to America for high school at the age of fifteen opened up my cultural perspectives and experiences. During my three years of stay in the US, not only did I improve my English…

Bill T. Jones is a choreographer known for his works incorporating text, monologue, and media, with the addition of making statements through dance on political topics such as gay rights and AIDS. A very interesting fact about Bill T. Jones is that he counts continuously, instead of a regular eight count. He founded the company of the “Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company” which is based out of Harlem in New York City. With most of the company being residents of New York City. This made it more…