Prep
We have been working on this set since about the beginning of the year (besides Alice in Wonderland which we got only in late October). Given that jazz band is a class we have 4 days a week, we thankfully get many opportunities to play and practice together as a band. Within those 4 days, one of them is spent with amazing trumpet player and instructor Bill Theurer. He spends the period going over rhythmic errors and suggests tone changes. With the guidance of our fantastic teachers, we were prepared to play in that little wine storage room.
Mp4 Files
Unfortunately, the files were too big so here is a link to the videos on Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fi8u8vvsxj2x9id/AACtKjLxX7a3bYoJDUMcxT8pa?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fi8u8vvsxj2x9id/AACtKjLxX7a3bYoJDUMcxT8pa?dl=0
Performance Reflection
- Karina
- I thought that we did a pretty good job on this song. We didn’t start off too loud which allowed for a smooth transition into the sax/trombone melody. I thought that Trevor and my solo fit well together and that we stopped well together at the end of the “C” section. Nate took a solo after Trevor and I, and some of the band did not know that this was going to happen. Still everyone adapted and we managed to pull through. We continued through the song and ended the song cleanly.
- Eatin’ B-Fast
- This song has always been a fun song to play and perform. I could tell that the audience could really get into the jazz-funk groove which was nice to see. One of the only problems I found with our performance was the tempo. We started much faster than we had practiced, but this common during performances. We managed to adjust to the new speed and play strong through the song.
- Who Dunnit
- Based off of what I've heard from different audience members, this was a crowd favorite. We played pretty well overall. The sound of Max’s bass carried more than I’ve probably ever heard in the past. I never heard any blatant mistakes throughout the whole song. That being said, there were a few things we could change. First of all, at certain points, I felt that I should’ve adjusted to the other section as to not overpower them. For a second during the sax soli the rhythm section got off from the saxophones which caused momentary tension but we eventually corrected our error.
- Alice
- Yeah, there’s a few things to clean up here too. The soloists had difficulty switching off on their solos and personally I found that I was not prepared to switch comping with Tak. After Angie's solo, the trombones and I have a subtle part behind a saxophone line that I felt could have been stronger.
- Zebrano
- We did pretty well on this song. We kept a consistent groove throughout the song and I could tell that the audience liked it a lot. The only thing I can say that we messed up on was playing the correct rhythms during Nate’s solo. Some people play some of the notes just a hair off, but it’s enough to ruin the feel of that part of the song.
Two “C’s”
- Cultural Competence
- Throughout our set is a variety of different genres and feels that cover many of the kinds of music that we hear from around the world. Through the Afro-Cuban rhythms of Zebrano we get a look into the music of Latin America. The blues influenced style of Whodunnit brings us back to 1940’s America, a time where big band music like the music of Gordon Goodwin could be found in almost every club across the country. Alice in Wonderland, a jazz classic, is a wonderful example of jazz’s influence on cinema (as it appears in the 1951 film, Alice in Wonderland).
- Communication
- One of the most important parts of playing music is communication. When playing with other musicians, one must be able to prepare for say a volume change or the ending of a song. So unless you can read minds, it’s always important to look around and communicate to your fellow bandmates when you want to make a tonal/rhythmic change or any general change in plan. For example, when I was playing with the Jazz Combo, right when we hit a note and stopped our drummer Nate began his solo. Although some of the band new about this change that we had made during the previous practice, there were a few members that were not informed. Thankfully, through their use of communication, these band members caught on and we were able to finish the song with no indication of hesitation or error.