Last Wednesday, the college’s Music Department hosted its All That Jazz concert, highlighting the school’s Traditional Jazz Band and Jazz Ensemble. Both bands feature students, alumni and members of the staff and are directed by Gary Buttery.
The show opened to a sparsely filled audience in Evans Hall with the traditional jazz band’s set. By and large, the set was a fast-paced, horn-dominated affair with most songs featuring a round of solos from the clarinet, saxophone and trumpet. Though both the solos and the pieces in general were very well executed, the aesthetic appeal of these types of songs seemed to be lacking. Instrumentally, the highlights of the set were those that deviated from this formula—the first major inclusion of a leisurely guitar solo in the track “Back in Your Own Backyard,” skillfully performed by Andy Stein-Zeller ’14, brought a welcome reprieve from the upbeat, fast rolling tracks that dominated the set. This piece also swapped out Buttery’s tuba support for upright bass, further shifting the sound of the band. After “Backyard,” the band played the song “My Ideal,” by far my favorite song in the set. The tempo dropped considerably, and the instruments gradually oozed in over a background of drums, strings and piano. A strong guitar solo, as well as a clarinet/trumpet duet featuring Binsen Li ’13 and Alex Owen ’12 helped carry the song to a beautiful piano close played by Mark Peele.
Peele, a community musician, also contributed vocals to the song “Lulu’s Back In Town.” Though his vocal contribution was brief, he brought a pleasantly gritty sound to the set. Aside from Peele, Micaela Tepler ’15 and Emily Arner ’14 provided vocals. Where Tepler’s soprano vocals helped to carry the more fast paced songs, Arner’s voice dropped in both pitch and tempo, her warm voice carrying the vocals a bit more clearly.
Compared to the Traditional band, the Jazz Ensemble was much more my style. Opening with the first of two songs written by the Mingus Big Band, the Ensemble’s performance of “Boogie Stop Shuffle” opened with a deep, almost haunting drone forward, eventually opening up to feature some of the best solos of the night—Kolton Harris ’14 performed a drum solo that was nothing short of spectacular, and a guitar solo by Erik Caldarone ’12 drew a clear distinction in style between his and Stein-Zeller’s playing. The song’s closing crescendo was far more unique than anything produced by the Traditional Jazz Band, and solidified the song as my highlight of the evening.
The eclectic theme of “Boogie Stop Shuffle” carried through the majority of the Ensemble’s set—between the excellent implementation of trumpet mute by Owen in “Makin’ Whoopee” and the whole band clapping in the upbeat “There’s A Mingus Amongus,” dull moments were few and far between in this set.
The Ensemble’s final two songs were among its strongest. “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” another Mingus track, was smooth and soulful, and was the first song that I felt really allowed Tepler to flex her vocal muscle. “After Mr. Teng”, the final song, brought the Ensemble’s set to an appropriate close. Featuring a complex, fast paced and generally wild sound, “Teng” was a success both in technical skill and style.
Personally, I tend to lean toward the lush sound of more modern jazz by the Jazz Ensemble. Though the type of music played by the Traditional Jazz Band wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it was clear that the technical level of both bands held an impressive level of musical prowess.
