MUSIC 516

Concert Review

10/28/09

For my concert review I chose to go to a jazz concert at the University of Maryland at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The concert featured three jazz ensembles. Each group played six selections. Three complete jazz ensembles for one school was pretty impressive. The venue was a great place to hear a concert.

The first group, The University of Maryland Jazz Ensemble was the top group. Balance and blend were excellent. Their director, Chris Vadala, did an excellent job of teaching the fundamentals and concepts of jazz to his students. The ensemble was tight and well balanced. Soloists were very mature musically. There was a lot of depth through out the band.

Strangely, throughout the performance of the first group, the piano was not featured at all. The only time I noticed it was when it was used with the guitar to set up an ostinato figure. During the second group, the piano was featured a lot. The piano had some solos and was used more to back up certain soloists.

It is difficult in a big band to find a working balance in a rhythm section when drums, bass, piano and guitar are all used, which was the case for all of the groups. It is difficult to communicate musically, primarily when both guitar and piano are used in a big band setting, as both instruments have a very similar role. I did not stay for the third group as it was getting late.