2nd Concert Report: Jazz Concert

Hello Bloggers,

            So for my second concert report I went to the Jazz Ensemble: 4^th Annual Composition Contest Concert featuring Jack Gale. The Concert took place Friday, October 11^th at 8:15pm in Ford Hall in Whalen Center for Music. The members playing in the concert were all music students except for Jack Gale, Mike Titlebaum and Catherine Gale. Jack Gale is a trombonist who has been in a number of orchestras and over thirty Broadway shows. He has been apart of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music since 1981. Michael Titlebaum is the Director of Jazz Studies here at Ithaca College in the Whalen Center for Music; he was the maestro for the Jazz Ensemble, instructing the students throughout each piece. There was also an appearance by Catherine Gale, who is a vocal teacher at Ithaca College and the daughter of Jack Gale.

There were 9 pieces that were performed, 2 of them being the winners of the composition contest; “Soft Glow, Sharp Edges” by David von Kampen and “Trixie’s Little Girl” by Pete McGuiness, Pete McGuiness was there in person and played along side Jack Gale during his piece’s performance.

There was a great diversity between pieces at this Concert. The concert started off with a bang! The first piece was designed to let each student introduce themselves with their instrument, each getting a small solo and after each solo the band would come together again and play all together. While other pieces were smooth jazz, being more structured and had a different jazz sound than other pieces, which were more loose and be bop jazz.  The talent in the room was insane! Each person played beautifully; they were so passionate about Jazz and it showed, during their solo the player would play their heart out.

Jazz is different from what we have been learning about in class, which is the Enlightenment and Classical music.  The form of classical music is structure; it is balanced and each note is planned, there is order involved. Jazz is completely different; Jazz music is when the player improvises most of their notes, they play around with playing techniques totally throwing away order and structure yet it still sounds amazing. Yes, there are times when the sheet music is needed like when the whole band comes back together to play the chorus together, they need to be in sync and on the same notes to sound good. For example one of my favorite pieces played at the concert was the very first piece, “Flaming Sword” it was so exciting and playful. The melody was fast and catchy and almost each performer played a solo. Along with the structure and format I found that the texture was also different compared to classical music like one of Haydn or Mozart’s pieces. The structure of Jazz is unpredictable with unwritten parts, some parts would explode with energy and melody but go back to the basic notes, there would still be improvising through out the piece, while classical is very structured, there are no improvised parts in classical music. I also loved in some of the pieces played there was a bit of beck and call going on which also happened in the opera we looked at, “Don Giovanni”. At the concert the trumpets would play notes then the trombones would and back and forth they would go like a conversation.

I found the complex and energetic melodies and texture of the pieces to be most memorable. Since taking Musical Phrases I’ve been able to hear each individual instrument and how it creates the texture. Listening to the melody and texture at the Jazz concert was incredible, I heard how each instrument built up on each other to create the jazz melody.

I absolutely loved this concert! I never really listen to Jazz but when I do I enjoy it! The execution and performance of the performers was incredible; you could tell they loved what they did and the instrument they played. Each piece played exemplified different types of jazz, which was interesting to experience; it kept the show going and showed diversity in jazz.

-Kelsey