Jazz Concert

I had the privilege of going the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood to see the Christian McBride Quintet. To be absolutely honest, I was not looking forward to having to go to a jazz concert. Jazz is definitely not my preference in music. However, once we got to the club and the band came on, I really enjoyed myself. It was a lot of fun watching the musicians play their instruments and see how quickly their hands moved. The atmosphere was really fun and light, so it made the concert a lot of fun to be a part of. It was the first night this band was going to perform at the club so the band didn’t exactly have the sets lined up, but I think I liked that better that way. Christian McBride decided to change the order of songs as well as what songs they were doing in the middle of the set. I like when musicians take liberties like that, it makes the audience more relaxed and shows you that, especially in jazz, things are improvisation on the stage.
I was very curious to learn more about how jazz music works. It seemed to me that they planned out who and what instrument was going to take a solo at what time during the piece. That part I’m not so confused about, what I’m confused about mostly is how the other musicians in the band know when the soloist is going to stop and when they are supposed to come back in to play together. I tried to watch the other band members and see if there was a head nod or some kind of sign as to when the soloist was finishing and I didn’t see one. Maybe they do something that’s not noticeable or maybe they just let the soloist go on until they are done. Whatever it is I was very impressed with how they band members knew when to come back into the song.
The band had a piano, bass, drums, saxophone, and a vibraphone. They would start their songs with everyone playing together then take turns doing solos. The musicians would actually move off the stage when there was a solo going on. I liked that they did this so the audience was able to focus on the person that was giving the solo. The drums and bass never stopped as to keep the beat. My favorite parts were the ones that just had the piano, bass and drums playing. I liked the sound they made playing with each other.
In the middle of the set Christian McBride introduced the band and talked about some people that were in the audience. One person he acknowledged that was there was Chris Botti. The audience, those that really know about jazz, was very excited that he was in the crowd. Unfortunately he did not bring his trumpet along, so he didn’t get to play with the band. I looked him up when I got home from the concert because I felt that he was an important man in the jazz scene. It turns out that Chris Botti is an established trumpet player in both jazz and pop music. It was neat to have a popular jazz musician at the concert.
Overall, my experience at the jazz concert was great. It was a great experience to have and a good way to broaden my knowledge in music.