Jazz Concert Essay

The two concerts that I chose to go see were Stanislaus State Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensembles & Combos Concert. These two concerts are both very similar yet different in their own ways. Each piece also has many attributes to contribute and it was fun being able to watch two very different genres. For Stanislaus State Wind Ensemble the type of ensembles that were playing were brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The instruments that I heard and saw included the flute, trombone, French horn, piccolo, tube, trumpet, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, a bass, and the drums. At this concert there was no singing, only instruments; and in total there were eight songs that were performed. One performance that stood out to me during the concert was a song called Sinfonia #3 by J. C. Bach (Wind Ensemble Concert program). The reason I enjoyed this song was because it was performed by nine saxophone players. I would say

The musicians were able to keep time by taping their feet, listening to the piano and drums play a steady beat, and along with a lot of practice beforehand. When it comes to the meter of the piece I noticed that when each musician was playing their part in the song the rhythmic structure would change. When the trumpet player and saxophone player were playing together the beat was steady and loud, but when they were playing separately the sound was not as loud, but the beat remained the same. Each instrument created a different feeling to the music, even though they were playing the exact same part. This song, Bishop’s Blues, was played in major key. I know this because the song gave off more of a happy and soulful feeling. When listening to the song you could tell that it was a blues song with a lot of gospel aspects. It wasn 't a fast song but you never got bored listening to it because the beat always kept you