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  • Essay / The Mingus Big Band performance at the jazz concert

    I am sure that in 40 years I will have fond memories of my younger years. One of them will certainly be the jazz concert I attended this Thursday evening in Fez, located at 380 rue Lafayette, just under the Time Café. Like every Thursday evening, the center of attention was the famous "Mingus Big Band", whose name perpetuates a great and somewhat controversial jazz composer, Charles Mingus. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When I arrived, the musicians were rehearsing and talking about the show. Everyone played with their instruments, making sure they wouldn't cause any problems during the "dreaded" live performance. The group consisted of 12 artists who seemed to have difficulty fitting into this small platform. The wind instruments were located at the front of the group, consisting of: a bassoon, a flute, a trumpet, a tenor saxophone, an alto saxophone and even a soprano saxophone. Behind them, a French horn, a trombone and a bass saxophone. A drum kit with cymbals was the only percussion instrument played in the band. The piano represented the keyboard family while a double bass and an electric guitar represented the stringed instruments. The group opened with a ballad called "Noon night". The protagonist of this piece was the French horn playing a solo. The bass and trombone followed the solo in the background. The second track, titled "Eclipse", featured electric guitar and bassoon. Both performed the same melody in their solos. In the first solo the melody was soft and slow while in the second it became faster and more joyful. This piece of music seemed to speed up over time. I still remember the ecstatic and enthusiastic crowd at the end of the play. The third play, entitled “Haitian Combat,” was more dramatic than the others. It looked like a chaotic atmosphere, similar to a fight, as the name suggests. The three pieces are different in many ways, but they all seem to bear the composer's signature. All are modern jazz, characterized by its dissonance. The meter in all rooms varies. “Noon night” was a ballad, slow and sometimes even melancholy. The tone color was not as rich as the other two pieces. In this piece more wind instruments were used. “Eclipse” started slowly then moved to a very fast tempo. In this piece, most of the instruments participated actively. “Combat Haïtien” was introduced by the bass, which gradually transformed into a dance rhythm. The rest of the instruments joined in, trying to imitate a disorganized fight. The sound color of all the pieces was extremely rich, the group sounded homophonic regardless of the improvisation. They needed a conductor who sometimes guided the rest. The relationship between prepared and improvised component was notable in each piece. In all the rooms the artists added embellishments and they all matched in a magical way. During “Haitian Fight,” the trombonist even started shouting “Oh yeah,” which then became part of the audience. In the solos, each member of the group added their personal touch; sometimes the instruments even duplicated voices. It was extremely superb, because the group had homophony and the timing was good. Soloists had more freedom in interpretation. They become the center of attention by making the sound of their instrument more intense. The rest of the music becomes the background in which they develop. Each instrument in the solo had its magical moment. During the solos, the members who.