The Jazz Combos Concert - Essay Example

The Jazz Combos ConcertThe Jazz Combos concert was a performance concert by different Jazz artists. The different performing groups had a horn and a rhythm section. The rhythm section comprised of a piano, bass and drums; the horn section had trumpets and a trombone. Throughout the concert, the performances were relatively similar, which follows the analysis of the performance in a generalized manner (Cone 50). For instance, for the saxophone section, the saxophones were played to produce similar melodic lines.

In some cases, the tenor saxophone played the counter melody, but in other cases, they took the lead. Some of the performers featured during the concert included Kelsey Marvin, Jeff Hampton, and Sarah Rodger among others. This paper discusses my thoughts and feelings about the Jazz Combos concert held on April 4 this year. The performers’ notation was good for the octatonic pieces, despite the fact that they are diatonic to a lack of key. This demonstrates that the universal rules for non-harmonic tones were applicable to the performances.

Ascending notes took naturals or sharps – either flat or descending. The signature style for Jazz performances stood throughout the performance. In developing a swing feel, there were notable ways that included the notation of the bass lines as quarter note pieces. However, there was a high sense of repetitiveness and predictability throughout the performance, which appeared to limit the forward motion aspect of the swing bass effect. Throughout the performances, the basic rule that the double bass should not be used to play a simple single-measure line, which is repetitive, was observed.

This shows that the performances were highly stylistic and were presented before the audience in an effective manner (Cone 48). There were instances where the piano accompaniment was placed on the music’s beat, instead of using it to anticipate alternating beats, which marked a weakness in many of the performances. In some performances, like I anticipated all the performances to be played, the chords were played in staccato-against on-the-beat music lines, which were used effectively, to create the musical yin and yang characteristic of the swing feel.

The style was very effective in cultivating the interest of the audience and demonstrating its artistic nature. As expected from the performances, most artists used modified block chords – which they employed, when comping with the melody of a walking bass (Cone 42). This musical style substitutes some beats at the right, while maintaining the close-placement of the chords in the left. The styles showed that the performers had employed effective style in developing the pieces. The performers often employed melodic riff figure in the horn section, where they used a swing part for the performance’s drum set.

Two of the performing groups did this through instructing the drummer to play swing, employing all the feelings, variants and the gestures. This style distinguished the performance as highly jazz-oriented and not one influenced by other music genres. The performers employed stylistic fusion, which often sounded corny, but was done in an effective and authentic manner – towards ensuring that it enhanced the sonic fingerprint. The performers relied on the assembly of chromatically-enhanced qn lines, particularly in 8mm phrases – which was done through targeting the chordal roots of the music.

The style distinguished the performances, from those that I had witnessed in the past (Cone 39). The Jazz Combo concert was a concert by different artists. The different performing groups had the horn, rhythm and the saxophone sections. Some of the styles used by the performers, which distinguished the performances, include the use of octatonic pieces, non-harmonic tones and piano accompaniment. The different styles used demonstrate that the performances were exceptionally presented – distinguishing them from many other performances.

Works CitedCone, Edward. “Analysis Today.” Music: A View from Delft. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Print.