Example Of A Jazz Concert

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On October 23, 2017, I attended a jazz concert at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center. This concert was a celebration of the music of Freddie Hubbard. Freddie Hubbard was an Indianapolis native and a jazz legend. According to the program I received before the performance, Freddie Hubbard had a unique trumpeting style that characterized him as being one of “the most influential [trumpet players] to come out of the 1960s”. The band that played was a quartet composed of a saxophonist, a bassist, a drummer, and a pianist (a guitarist was originally scheduled to perform, but he did not show up). Before attending the concert, I read that the band was heavily influenced by the work of Miles Davis. This led me to surmise that I would be listening to cool jazz since Miles Davis is credited with …show more content…

According to the concert program, Freddie Hubbard wrote this piece to memorialize Booker Little, a fledgling trumpet player who died at the tender age of 23. Obviously, given the background information provided by the program, one would expect this song to sound especially sad. The piano started off the piece playing in a minor key, and the saxophone played in a somber tone. The drummer used brushes and utilized his cymbals. The bassist played long, drawn-out notes. All of these style choices contributed to the overall gloom and wistfulness of the piece. “Little Sunflower” could not have come at a better time. “Little Sunflower” was upbeat and hopeful, effectively lifting the spirits of the audience. The bass played a riff, or repeated melodic phrase, at the beginning of the piece. The sax made that swirling sound again, lending to the overall cheerful and optimistic tone of the song. It makes sense that this style would be used again because, according to the concert program, both “Up Jumped Spring” and “Little Sunflower” are featured on the same album, Backlash. This song was groovy and highly

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