Jazz Ensemble

I was trying to think of which encounter project I wanted to do when my cousin told me she was going to a jazz concert for one of her classes. I thought this would be the perfect situation to go listen to some music that I wasn’t familiar with at all. We went to the Jazz Ensemble at the Musical Arts Center on Monday, October 22 at 8p.m.


When we first walked in, I immediately noticed that the majority of people I saw were much older than us. I thought that was interesting because I feel like I’ve always heard about jazz being like “older people’s music.” I didn’t want to throw it into a group right from the beginning, but it was funny that it turned out that way. I also noticed that there was a “uniform” being worn among the musicians. All the men who were playing, as well as the conductor, were wearing tuxedos and the women were wearing black dresses and black heels. I guess this sort of gave the entire situation a classy or elegant feel. I also noticed that there was a definite stage set up before the concert began as well as kind of a backdrop that looked like it was supposed to help echo the music back out towards the audience. This just made me think about all the different factors that play into a folk group’s cultural performance like we’ve discussed in class.


At first I didn’t think I was going to like the concert because the first song was really loud and had a lot of high pitched trumpet sounds. However, I kept listening and ended up really liking the next couple of songs. I could tell that there definitely is a sense of tradition within jazz because the conductor was introducing songs originally played by jazz legends, like Quincy Jones and Miles Davis. I really liked the fourth song they played, “Quintessence” by Quincy Jones because it was much calmer and a little softer sounding than the others. After the concert, my cousin told me that the conductor, David Baker, was her teacher for jazz class. She said he told them at one point, he played with some of the jazz legends. I thought that was really cool because I felt like I was listening to something directed by someone who was really in the thick of the jazz tradition. Looking back on the situation, I did enjoy some of the different songs. I’m glad I tried something new because now I feel like I have a little more cultural knowledge under my belt. This is my response to the Musical Performance Visit project.