Jazz Band II 18 October 2013 Mike Vax: BigBandJazz.net Mike Vax is an outstanding trumpeter who specializes in Jazz studies. On his album “BigBandJazz.net” he plays in a Ferguson-esque manor, not in terms of range, but style—playing over the band as the featured soloist. The first track on this album is “Royal Rendezous”, a Mike Vax original, which is a nice and mellow swing chart featuring tenor Scott Peterson and trumpeter Mike Olmos on the solos. I really enjoy this song because it contrasts in balance and dynamics. For example, the song at times changes from a quiet saxophone soli, to a loud shout chorus, to a uniquely created improvised solo.
Quality of the Sound: ______Excellent_________________________(Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) Comment: The Loeb Playhouse is wonderful. Besides the amazing architecture to be seen in this building, there are spaces around the building that you can walk around in, and the design delivers amazing sound. Quality of the Performance: ______Good_______ (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) Comment: The whole concert is well organized, and fluently. Different instruments knows when and how to play their parts., it is like everybody knows their own job. However, the third song concertino for clarinet, played by Frank Bencriscutto.
The third part is even slower yet, but has a new sense of cheer to it. As the soloist sings with the instrument, you begin to get into and expect this peaceful melody to continue, when all of a sudden Bach adds in the whole choir in an instant going at a quick tempo. The notes are also crisper then before adding feelings of excitement. Throughout the parts, imitative polyphony is used, as the lines are independent yet sound together harmonically. The color and tone of the various voices and instruments flavour the melody and all appear to contribute to each other.
Later, the strings came in as an accompanying section along with the guitar playing chords. After the English horn finished the melodic solo, Mr. Williams played the melodic line, which is almost identical to that of the English horn. Mr. Williams’s solo was very melancholic, yet uplifting. Both the soloist and the orchestra were very sensitive to harmonic changes and drama during the movement. The cadenza was very impressive musically and technically.
Bernstein uses 3-beat ostinato to set a breathy and excited mood. Jazz Harmonies, Syncopated Rhythm & Tritone are all used in this piece. ‘Something’s coming’ has a jazz harmony. The chords in this piece have blue notes, this creates a swingy, jazzy feel to the piece and makes the piece a happy, up beat song. The piece is bitonal in places.
The movement begins on a sympathetic note. The brass playing, trumpets, trombones, tubas, and horns all played with excellent projection and fine tuning. I felt a longing to go back to the first movement, although the tragic portions did create suspense, irony, and
Also another scene from the movie, which was characterized by music and that definitely impressed me, was when Laszlo begins singing followed by many people, La Marsellesa, the French national anthem, even before the occupation of the country. This singing was significant at Rick’s Café Américain because it was louder than the Germans, who were singing Die Wacht am Rhein, which was considered a patriotic anthem during Nazi Germany. Undoubtedly music represents much more than a sound. The song As Time Goes By witnessed the love between Rick and Ilsa. For them this song always brings fond memories and we can see it, when Ilsa is sitting adjacent to Sam’s piano quietly enjoying this song.
Both pieces share this style of entry – a short solo lead-in to an immediate tutti. The melody, which in “Hey Ya!” is vocal rather than woodwind like in the unidentified work, is quite different to the melody in the unidentified work. While the unidentified work features many chromatic runs, trills and other embellishments, the melody in “Hey Ya!” is more simple, sticking to a small range and lacking in rhythmic complexity, which keeps the focus on the lyrics and the sentiment of the song, here described by Andre 3000, one half of the duo Outkast. “I think it's more important to be happy than to meet up to...the world's expectations of what a relationship should be. So this is a celebration of how men and women relate to each other in the 2000s."
The piece In the Hall of the Mountain King has a very familiar melody, so it was very enjoyable to listen to. By starting off with a low bassoon timbre, the scene was set very well. The mood of an eerie, spooky night was set well with the low register notes. As the piece goes on the melody is apparent throughout, but the tempo speeds up. By speeding up the tempo and adding more instruments every time the melody is played, the composer is able to depict the increased fear of the “character” in the “story” portrayed through the piece.
The soloing instruments seem to be the tenor saxophone, piano, trumpet (sometimes muted), and more saxophones. Some of the instruments used in this recording include trumpets, trombones, tenor/alto saxophones, clarinet, piano, and drums. A popular technique created that is still used today is to use a toilet plunger as a mute at the end of your brass horn which creates a unique and muffled jazzy tone. The band plays a bunch of different riffs that function as themes or as accompaniment material for soloists. This leads to an extremely popular technique; the call and response.