Pop And Jazz Report Guidelines - Essay Example

Saturday, the 25th day of June was the date when Darius Jones trio took to the podium to dazzle the crowd with their jazz pieces (Lavelle 12). The scene for the Undead Jazz Festival was spread across different venues throughout New York City. This was not a brilliant idea as there was confusion on where and when the individuals and groups would play with some missing out on the action due to this. Over fifty jazz groups braced the event much to the surprise of the organizers and eleven venues were picked for each night during this year’s festival.

Le Poisson Rounge, Kenny‘s Castaways, Sullivan Hall was picked as the opening venue in Manhattan scheduled for June 23rd. The Bell House in Park Slope, Brooklyn hosted the events of June the 24th and Public Assembly, Cubana Social, Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn hosted the events of June the 26th.Darius Jones trio was scheduled to perform at Littlefield, Homage Skate Park and cross fit gym in Gowanus, Brooklyn (Lavelle 23). The stage at Homage Skate Park training facility was improvised and the acoustics were not as brilliant as expected.

Plenty of unwarranted reverb was experienced with an occasional echo and feedback. This did not stop the 3,500 people in attendance from enjoying the music. Both the young and old were in attendance here and the audience was multi disciplinary, with a little bit of everybody being present, from aspiring jazz musicians to renowned performers from different generations (Lavelle 67). Jazz was obviously the group’s music genre of choice, with a contemporary feel and I must say they did not disappoint.

The group is made up of three musicians with Darius Jones on the saxophone, Jason Nazary on drums and Adam Lane on bass who are all professional musicians. Voice was not an instrument of choice during this performance (Lavelle 45). These musicians seemed to know their instruments pretty well as they showed considerable expertise and skill both in the music played and especially in the improvisation. Darius played a series of runs and drills flowing through the blue scale. The fact that he included modulation, crescendo and diminuendo in his play portrayed him as a gifted jazz musician and the audience seemed to agree (Lavelle 47).

The bass player, Adam Lane was the backbone of the trio, playing the underlying bass ling that guided the improvisation, though he would wonder off at times before swiftly and accurately going back to his part. The drums were played almost perfectly with Jason Nazary dictating the tempo and incorporating different speeds in the music. The drums created the beginning of all the songs and picked turns in ending them with the alto saxophone creating the ending melody at times (Lavelle 36). The music was really enjoyable and had a complex groove though I still feel more could have been done to incorporate and create a cool mix of classical and contemporary jazz.

The set became surprising due to the group’s wide range of creativity. Jones playing the alto saxophone gave the enthusiastic audience a taste of firm, earth bound music while exploring different feels in it too. Jones’ music had a clear cut intense sound flowing through the notes from the high ones to the low ones (Lavelle 58). The music played involved gradual crescendo and intensity. It slowly picked up pace and became louder. Rubato melodies characterized the first two songs but according to me,