Personal Narrative: The Jazz Experience

The Jazz Experience
On Friday, April 14, I decided to go to BlueWhale jazz club in Little Tokyo, Downtown LA, which had a Jazz concert under the title “Anthony Fund featuring George Garzone”. I decided to google who is Anthony Fung who was a brilliant young drummer who was the same age as me, 23, I was very intrigued to attend. when I arrived at the Jazz Club the place was surprisingly packed. Me and my friends who I dragged along had to stand up for a while. the band has not yet started, there was only the drummer entertaining the audience. it seemed that Fung plays there often and he is quite popular. I scanned the audience to see what kind of people are there. It was my first time to attend a jazz concert, and since the beginning

of this class I have grown fond of the music and beauty of it and wanted to see if i fit in in “the jazz crowd”. The audience was very diverse with people from all races and ages, and Jazz brought all these people together it was beautiful. The band started playing and everybody was enjoying the music with smile on their faces, and soak up the music as if it was a ray of sunshine. My experience attending the jazz concert was beautiful and defiantly will not be my last time to attend.

When the band started playing for a moment i forgot to enjoy the music was too detracted trying to figure out all the elements of Jazz, technicalities, and people watching.

The band played together in such harmony and joy, and they exchanged looks as if they're talking to each other and understood by looks. As it turns out the guest go the nigh George Gazone was the professor who taught the band members music. Garzone Played the Saxophone like no other, he’s solos were magical it was fascinating watching him and the admiration his student have for him. The music sounded beautiful, yet seems the band are not well prepared for the evening. There was a lot of improvisation and as if every band member wanted to show off his skills which was really good. Improvisation is an element of jazz I was looking for, also, there were a lot of call and response between the band members different ones at each piece they played.

Watching a band play life is so different from listening to the music in youtube. Listening to recorded music makes so easy for me to just close my eyes and just enjoy the music. However, watching live music gave me the chance to enjoy the music and feel like a part of it. Seeing the band members of each instrument dance with with melody and the music of another instrument made the experience more than just enjoy the music. My experience was beyond “fun” it was truly beautiful. Everyone in the audience reflected the sound of the music on their faces through their

expressions.

My experience may have been a little overwhelming because I went to the concert with no expectations. I thought I would go there and be bored and just get the paper done with. I was not at all expecting the concert to be that good. However, I enjoyed every minute of it and end getting a front row seat which allow me to see the bands faces clearer and observe their expressions it seemed none of them rather to be anywhere else but on that stage. The atmosphere was full good vibes and love, I found myself wanting to hug someone or dance with someone. I was in pure joy and jaw starting hurting from all the smiling. In the break I decided to talk to band members and take a photo with them, they were extremely friendly and modest. On top of all that beautiful Music that place served coffee which made my evening literally cannot be better.