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Concert Report: Jazz Ensemble
On the 23rd of May 2019, on a Thursday evening, the Los Angeles Harbor College Jazz Band presented a Jazz Ensemble, at the Los Angeles Harbor College music recital hall, directed by Wagner Trindade. The Los Angeles Harbor College Jazz Band consisted of Paul Zdanek and Karen Yokohama, playing the alto saxophones; Joe Hackney and Roy Appleman, playing the tenor saxophones ; Matthew Alvarez, playing the baritone saxophone; Rich Gosset, Antonio De La Cruz, and Rene Rosales, Liz Holmes, and Luis Carrillo, playing trumpets; Gary Smietan, Rod Oaks, and Larry Booher, playing trombones; Lindsey Pfiffner, playing the vibraphone; Annemarie Herrdoff and Bill Sinclair, playing the pianos; Alex Alvarez and Marcus Moore, playing guitars; Peggy Jeans, bass; and Phil Villa, Nicolas Sapper, and Carter Aristei, playing drums and percussion. The vocalists were Liz Holmes and Lindsey Pfiffner.
The band played to a full house that was made up of jazz lovers and students, mostly those pursuing music. The program for the concert was strictly followed. The jazz concert kicked off at 7:30 p.m. with Fables of Faubus, a song that was composed by Charles Mingus, a jazz bassist and composer, in 1959 (Mingus 1991). The second piece that was performed was Blue Birdland, which was composed by Maynard Ferguson and arranged by Jeff Turner. How Sweet It is, a jazz song written and produced in 1964 by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, came in third (Sher 1988). The song excited the audience and came just before the intermission of the event. After a short break, the band performed Love is Here to Stay, a very popular jazz song and standard that was composed by George Gershwin, an American pianist and composer. The song was made for the 1938 film, The Goldwyn Follies, which was the reason for its popularity.
The fifth song performed was the all-time great Upper Manhattan Medical Group (UMMG) jazz tune, which was composed by Billy Strayhorn. The song has an amazing melody, with a fine shout chorus and big ensemble sections. After UMMG, the Los Angeles Harbor College Jazz Band performed Jerry Herman’s Mame, a musical based on the novel Auntie Mame (1955), by Patrick Dennis. The band continued to keep the spirits of the audience high, with Hugh Starr’s Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You), a jazz standard that is popular in many parts of the world. The mood of the audience was jovial, with many of them singing along with the band’s vocalists. Next came Three and One, a quartet by Thad Jones (Sher 1988). Thad Jones was an American composer, trumpeter, arranger, and bandleader. He is one of Americas greatest jazz trumpet soloists and played the trumpet, cornet, and the flugelhorn (Wright 1982).
Sweet Georgia Brown, a pop tune that has become a jazz standard, which was composed by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard in 1925, and The Blues Walk, by Clifford Brown, were performed as the closing jazz songs, bringing an end to the Jazz Ensemble. The Los Angeles Harbor College Jazz Band is composed of experienced band members who are able to give a great performance and entertain their crowd. The band has the capability to perform at local and national events, going by the performance at the Jazz Ensemble. They surely provided the much-needed entertainment at the college on the 23rd of May, an evening to remember.
Works Cited
Mingus, Charles. Charles Mingus, More Than a Fake Book. Fake Books, 1991.
Sher, Chuck. The new real book: jazz classics, choice standards, pop-fusion classics: created by musicians, for musicians. Vol. 1. Sher Music Co, 1988.
Wright, Rayburn. Inside the score: a detailed analysis of 8 classic jazz ensemble charts by Sammy Nestico, Thad Jones, and Bob Brookmeyer. Kendor Music, 1982.
