Chijmes Lawn Jazz Performance

Wow wat a night~ i am so thoroughly contented~ the trio of Wess Anderson, alto sax; Walter Blanding Jr., tenor sax; and Marcus Printup on trumpet together with the NUS jazz ensemble, thrilled the audience this night at the Chijmes Lawn.

First up was acapella done by the NUS jazz vocal group, and i'm amazed at how good they actually are~ these guys sure have talent~ and then later on came the whole Big band under the direction of Rick Smidts (i dunno whether i spelt dat correctly) - jazz guitar player from jazz band Chromosome of Harry's Bar (if i'm not wrong..). I thought the big band was pretty good~ i'd like to point out dat the pianist and the solo trumpeter has lots of potential and they were the ones dat stood out in the band. The drums and percussion durin the latin numbers were like totally swell man~ it's a pity, i was expecting alot more from the saxophonists. they couldnt even be heard loud enough! the trumpets definitely blew them away. it was very sad cos the sax solos could bearly be distinguished as solo work whereas the trumpets need not much to stand out~

When the trio came on stage, they plus the band played lots of Duke Ellington numbers, from swing, blues and one slow ballad which Wess Anderson soloed on. Walter Blanding was superb with his thrilling and such~ the tenor man however was not as showey as the other two. It was a pity, i was hoping these guys would play bebop, like really fast straight ahead Charlie Parker kinda improvisational jazz but well they played mostly swing stuff which was fine as well~ i think the most outstanding chap definitely was Marcus Printup, he had a solo piece using the muffler on the trumpet which looked sorta like the rubber end of a toilet plunger~ yeah and he really made the trumpet sound alive by givin it a voice! he made the trumpet sound so human! there was one part where he made the trumpet 'laugh'? like a sneering sorta laugh? i thought dat was cool man~ and his double/triple tonguing on the trumpet was just superb stuff.. man i gotta learn all dat kinda stuff~ the slurring, the glissando, thrilling, double/triple tonguing etc etc.. man, i'd love to play in a big band setting~

and then these guys were trading 4s betw each other? and then they traded 2s and then 1s and on and on.. trading 4s, 2s, 1s means the number of measures each soloist plays before he gives up to another guy to solo. so it's a solo for 1234 2234 3234 4234 and then he gives up to the next soloist and so on and so forth.

it's really interesting to analyse how the music is played. Even in jazz big band, there is a structure to the music? but yet there is no structure to the music~ get it? dat's just the way jazz is~

one man might lead the music in a certain direction by playin a solo. In dat solo, he thinks about wat he wants to say (before he solos of cos), and then improvises and plays wat comes to his mind. In jazz, if u have sumthin to say, say it! after dat he gives it up to another guy who does his own solo, now this guy would most of the time, take wat is given to him by the first guy and then he can choose to add on to the flow or direction the music is heading, or he can choose to sorta 'antagonise' it :) so the trading 4s etc comes into play here. it's very much like throwin the music back and forth betw each player. so in jazz, it's about listenin, feelin and respondin :)

it's really interesting when u pick out all the minute details in the music and u can see a conversation going on between players, not so easy to spot in big band though still evident, but much easier to see a conversation in smaller jazz ensembles like 3 - 5 players :)

well, hopefully in 5 - 10 years time or at least before i go off to Canada to do my music, things change alot here. The Arts flourish, jazz music becomes a huge everyday culture, live jazz music becomes common everywhere in town etc~ and there's a market out there for aspiring performing jazz musicians. IF NOT, i'd very much leave the country and take my art with me to some place that it can grow. hopefully, the culture changes and more youngsters will learn to embrace and appreciate the jazz art form, whether it's singin jazz, dancing jazz or performing jazz~