Jazz Concert Report #2

Jesus Ramos

On October 11 2013, there was a jazz concert that I thought was really good. Unfortunately I could not attend the concert due to other reasons, however I watched the concert on the IC website.

The first piece that was played was by Duke Ellington, called “Flaming Sword”. My guess is that they wanted to start off with something groovy to put people in a happy mood.  In addition to that, I like how they had time for most of the musicians to have a little solo improvisation. I say that because even though they had guest artists, they still had the wind instruments and the piano player participate and improvise their solos. In classical music, I do not believe that happens. Well of course that does not happen because classical music is more strictly organized, unless there is a specific part where one instrument plays on the music.

There was one piece that was really memorable to me. I just absolutely loved this song. I do believe this song is called Trixie’s little girl, written by a former student of Jack. His name is Pete McGinnis. This song starts off really smooth and soft. To me this is a very romantic song, like an oldie. I can even see myself dancing to this song. Its like everything is black and white, but this song brings out the colors to present some romance. I am so impressed that that by not looking at the video and just listening to the song, it sounds like an mp3 recording. I actually never really knew that a trombone could take the melody to the song and just make the song sound so beautiful.

The jazz concert was great as I mentioned. However, there were things that I also did not like about the concert. Little minor things, like I do not understand why the guitar player did not solo, or could even barely hear him play. There were parts on different songs where I could listen to him play a little bit, but if I just really concentrated. I could see that he is a good player, but there was no solo part for him. I also did not like that the composer Pete McGinnis did not performed as much as Jack Gail did. Sure Jack Gail was great at playing and improvising, but I thought it would have been nicer if Pete also played more than he did, especially because I really loved that song “Trixie’s little girl”.  Now I really want to attend another jazz concert in person.     

The Romantic Period,Caspar David Friedrich's painting, Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist (1818)

Jesus Ramos               

            

By looking at this image, the man is the main focus standing on the rocks looking like the king of the hill. However the sky and mountains is what this man is looking at. This man can be imagining many things in his head, like building a town or even coming up with a poem just by looking at nature. There can be many different things that can be going through his little noodle, but the thing that mostly makes sense is this man appreciating the beauty of nature. The sky is the limit could be something he might be saying. Comparing these paintings to other paintings, the sky is what always represents the mood of the painting. For example, if the color of the sky is red, this can represent hatred, war or death. For this painting, the man standing is dressed decent, also holding a cane, like an explorer. Back to the sky, the man seems interested to know what is out there. As if the sky also symbolizes a greater meaning.

            That is where I want to expand my thought. The meaning of something is important to the human being. As we discussed in class, the characteristics traits is the triumph of the individual by the rejection of society. Now this man is isolated and completely alone. Most people would jump to conclusion that being alone is a negative thing because no one is around for that support. However, what if this painting represents the triumph of one individual. Another question might be, what stands between the man and the mountains on the other side. Maybe the answer is opportunity.

There are many questions to this painting, which is why this painting is so relevant to the romantic period, because nothing is certain until one explores the pathways and mountains that one seeks. This is relevant to the painting we saw with the three soldiers, the three swords, the father and the three women. The father did not know where his three sons would end up because of the three different sides in war. One has to explore and seek for opportunity. Probably this painting requires emotion to describe the image. Sounds like the Enlightenment has expanded. Well this was my interpretation to this awesome painting. The one man standing I mean.             

Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major Blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP9KWQ8hAYk

The piece that I chose is the Piano Sonata No.11 in A major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I honestly chose this piece because I heard it in a movie called “Unleashed” starting Jet Li. This piece is smooth, calm and starts out like a lullaby, only a piano accompanying itself and relaxing at first with the repetition. This is a sentence with a parallel sectional period. The piece had its basic idea that’s really catchy to me, and then it has the repetition similar to the basic idea. Then, it has a continuation that evolves in the same key. Although Mozart added a bit more things along the way, he still reminds us of the basic idea of the melody. However, if you continue to listen to the rest of piece, you can really hear how this piece is so charming, that its like meant for a child to walk upon. As if there was a path for children to walk through and jog. So in other words, the continuation really goes somewhere that’s beyond its basic idea, but eventually has to return home.    

This is my diagram improv.

My best explanation to relate this piece to the Enlightenment may not be accurate. However though, this piece is about 14:25 minutes, so at first this song is very smooth and calm and almost as if it were exploring. Similar to the Enlightenment, people took small steps to figure out in what is important to life, thinking rationally and logically. Thus, after the whole smoothness and calmness, the song begins to speed up a little bit and try a whole bunch of things that can sound entertaining, interesting and charming. In the Enlightenment, people then started taking bigger steps by exploring and experimenting human body parts, recognizing the importance of education and simply questioning the type of government and authority they lived in.

I do not know about you, but I feel that in the beginning, the piano with the main idea sounds really good itself. However, it will eventually have to expand and become a whole new idea. I do like the original piece, however, try listening to this next piece and tell me what you think. Thank you! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqbumDnJ0Lc