The Three Jazz Musketeers

The concert performed by the Cyrus Chestnut Trio was an incredible experience.

Coming from an arts high school, I find myself missing music as a part of my everyday life. So, I was ecstatic to be attending this jazz performance.

The three musicians were wonderful.

The piano player impressed me. His fingers seemed thick and pudgy. But on the keyboards, they were dainty dancers, flitting around from key to key, from end to end on the board. His rhythm was spot on and his musicality was quite enjoyable. I enjoyed that he gave the audience brief background on the pieces the trio played and his experience with jazz and the greats. I loved the one about slavery – it was so poignantly emotional. His voice itself was mellifluous and relaxing, much like his music.

I was stunned by how perfect the drummer’s position was. Although he was widely playing the drums, most of the power came from his wrists and occasionally his forearms. His upper body – from his upper arms onward – were almost completely still. He was relaxed, using his body weight instead of sheer force to accomplish his sound.   The range of sounds he was able to create was vast – he knew exactly where to hit his drums and other percussion instruments and how to use his drum sticks, etc.

I found myself hypnotized by the bass player. He slid into 6^th and 7^th position effortlessly and amazingly in tune. His pizzicato was astounding. He had a beautiful tone quality and expertly moved up and down the board depending on the dynamic he was attempting to convey. I could only imagine how calloused his hands must be. At times, his left and right hand were almost touching (that was how far up the bass he went) and yet the music was still gorgeous. This is an incredibly feat to accomplish but he did so effortlessly, still maintaining a large quantity of musicality. Unfortunately, I cringed when he used his bow. The tone quality and technique he accomplished using pizzicato could not be compared to his scratchy bowing and poor bow hold. Nevertheless, his musical prowess-using pizzicato more than compensated for his poor bowing technique. There is a reason why bassists tend to specialize in pizzicato or bowing, likewise why bassists tend to focus on either classical or jazz music – they tend to be much better at one than the other.

I very much enjoyed this concert. I often found myself bouncing up and down in my chair or swaying back and forth to the music. This was beautiful.