On a Thursday night, March 30, the wind was cool outside the sliding gates of the Barbara Mertes Center. Inside, notes of blue, swing and complex harmony were ready to be unleashed by the Las Positas Jazz Combos and Ensembles.
The jazz concert was the first of a Spring Concert series to last through May. Dan Marschak directed the Combos and Mario Silva directed Jazz Ensemble. Both groups prepared semester long in their respective classes to give their performances.
The concert was very well presented, both ensemble and combos giving quality performances. The combos were smaller performances, consisting of three groups who prepared different set pieces.
The combos had come up with names of their combos for instance one was Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong combo, and one was also Cole Porter combo. The third combo was named the Hawk’s Nest studio Combo, Aka Cheese. Marschak said this group didn’t listen to him when he suggested having it named after a famous singer in Jazz.
The Ella and Louis combo performed their songs “Footprints,” by Wayne Shorter, “The Nearness of You,” by Hoagy Carmichael and “Blue Skies,” by Irving Berlin. The first two had jazz singers but the last was enitrely instrumental.. Amy Alavardo and Elliot Sicat were on vocals, Cameron Callahan on trumpet, Steve Gardner on trombone, Luis Peralta on piano, Michael Tonya & Nick Winslow on guitar, Amelia Nelson on bass and Matthias Rowe on drums.
Up next was the Hawk’s Nest studio combo; they performed three songs. The songs were “How High the Moon/Ornithology,” written by Nancy Hamiltion, Morgan Lewis and Charlie Parker. This group featured Leah Anonuevo on vocals, Alyssa Armstrong on trumpet, Grey Sato on alto sax, Alex Edwards on guitar, Emliy Harvey on piano, Chuanbo Jiao on bass and Lyle Elster on drums. They also performed “I Thought About You” by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer for the second song. The third and final song that the group played was “A Night in Tunisia.” which was written by Dizzy Gillespie .
The last combo group was the Cole Porter Group. Their group featured Kylie Pickard on vocals, Christopher Todd on recorder, Liam Maciel on guitar, Jerry Miller on piano, Regina Magpoc on bass and Daniil Kilmov on drums. The songs played were “So in love/I love Paris” and “I Get a Kick out of you,” written by Cole Porter and arranged by Christopher Todd. Pickard said her favorite song was “I Get a Kick Out of You.”
“It’s a nice upbeat song to sing and it allows me to kind of flourish in my voice a lot more,” Pickard said.
The big band finished the night with five Jazz Ensembles songs. The songs were “Wind Machine,” by Sammy Nestico, “I Remember Clifford,” written by Benny Golson and arranged by Mike Vax, “April In Paris,” written by Vernon Duke and arranged by Bob Lowden, “In a Mellow Tone,” written by Duke Ellington and arranged by Frank Foster and“After Youv’e Gone,” written by Turner Layton The band featured the saxophones Grey Sato on alto one, Raymond Chen on tenor one, Dylan Luijanto ontenor two and Michale Bass on bari. The trombones were Steven Gardner and Taisen Tullus. The trumpets were Alyss Armstrong on lead, Matteo Karmer on split lead, andAram Boyd, Alex Gallegos, Cameron Callahn and Michael Bailey.
The final section of the big band was the rhythm section which featured Emliy Harvery , Bruno Lafontaine and Eduardo Ocampo on piano. On the Guitar was Ian Jensen, Hansen Zhang, Jarod Bagalso, Isabella Pasto and Jason Kandel. Amelia Nelson was the only bass player and Daniil Klimov was the only drums player.
Brandon Byrne is the A&E editor for the Express. Follow him @Brandon95511931.
