Live Jazz Concert

On last Sunday night, I attended the live jazz concert which was performed by The Mike Glisatus Big Band featuring Duane Lawrence. The performance venue is a restaurant named Angelica’s in Redwood City. Since I went into the restaurant, I knew it is the perfect place to enjoy the live concert because the warm atmosphere and gentle style of the restaurant made people easily feel relax to enjoy the music.

We had our own table, and the Big Band was on the stage in front of us. Though I did not specialize in music, I could recognize some kinds of instruments. In the first row, there were five saxophonists; the second row were four trumpeters, and the third row were four trombonists. In addition, there were a drum set, a piano and a violoncello. In most of the jazz performed, there

would usually have one or two kinds of instruments to be soloed in each song.

The most styles of the jazz performed are cheerful and lively. Also, “the blues” is the deepest impression I have from all kinds of jazz. Particularly, I have “swing feeling”. There are several kinds of soloists including saxophonists, trumpeters, and the drummer and so on. I was most interested in the solo of saxophone and drum. From my observation, saxophones played the main role of the whole live jazz because of its featured sounds, and I guess that’s the reason why saxophones are soloed many times. Every time when the saxophonist solo, all of us would be attracted deeply by the wonderful and special sounds. I think saxophone is the symbol of jazz. Except the saxophone, the drum solo was really fantastic. In our usual impressions, most of the drum set is for popular or rock music; but surprisingly, the drum solo matches the styles of jazz so much. When the drummer

solo, its rhythm was lively and gradually, the rhythm became accelerando. In the meantime, the drum solo attracted all of our attractions. Particularly, I observed a very interesting thing is the musician played the violoncello as bass. It takes an important role in the whole live jazz because it performed the main beasts. I think although it is not a so obvious instrument like saxophones, it is indispensable.
To be honest, I never watched the live jazz before and I thought it would be boring. However, surprisingly, I really enjoyed the live and none of the moments that I felt bored. Most of the songs the band performed were lively so that I could follow the jazz to clap beats. Especially, I felt that each different kind of instruments can cooperate very well and smooth. In other words, the band worked extreme expertly. In particular, I was totally attracted by the man vocalist. When he was singing, his feet and body moved following the beats of the music. His enjoyment made us follow his steps to move our bodies. Not only his voice was amazing but also his special rhythm sensation fits the instruments so well. He sang 5 songs totally, and the song that I most impressive called “Stormy Monday”, which was the blues. In addition, in this song, the trumpet plays the main role.
Every time when the solo finished, audience would give them a resounding round of applause. I felt like all of the audiences enjoyed the music so much that we didn’t feel bored at all. Sometimes we could tell exactly what the melody of the song is, but sometime we couldn’t. I think it is jazz’s glamour. In the process of listening, it reminded me of improvisation, swing feel, syncopation, and the blue notes and so on, which was taught by my professor in the class. I was not expertized in music, so I was not able to analyze this live jazz professionally. I just wrote down what I listen and what I felt. This live jazz was really amazing and it totally changed my previous impression to live jazz. I hope I can have more opportunities to attend this kind of live jazz.