The Juilliard Jazz Quartet

I listen to a lot of music. I don’t identify myself as someone who listens to any one type of music–I enjoy rock, classical, rap, blues, folk, everything. However apart from listening to Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald every now and again, I have never been much of a listener to jazz. Although I have always appreciated jazz as a genre of music that takes an enormous amount of skill and finesse, I never took the time to listen closely to jazz and really explore it. I was really excited to see the jazz quartet at Juilliard because of this. I expected skill and perfection, but this performance exceeded my expectations.

I think the main reason why I never paid a huge amount of attention to jazz was because sometimes it feels a little all over the place–I would often find my mind wandering. I wouldn’t be able to focus on the music as much as something with a consistent melody. However during the performance at Juilliard, I found this to actually be something positive. The music, in its lack of consistent melody or lyrics, was meditative. I could clear my mind and fully immerse my brain in the sounds of the smooth, flowing jazz.

I really admired the saxophonist. Clearly, he was a master of his instrument; but not just musically. Seeing the way he moved while playing and the way he interacted with the other members of the band changed my entire listening experience. I felt connected with the players, and I feel like jazz is special in that way because it speaks to you without words.

I think my favorite part of the whole experience was that it felt very much like New York City. There’s something really nice about being by Lincoln Center in the fall, with the cool sounds of jazz playing in your ears. It reminds me of walking through Central Park with a cup of coffee and the leaves crunching beneath your feet as you walk past a guy playing the saxophone on a bench. The music that the quartet was playing was so crisp and beautiful that it conjured up a lot of images and scenes in my head. It became more about an entire bodily and mental experience rather than just hearing beautiful sounds.

The performance at Juilliard really opened my eyes to jazz music. I think I will be listening to and exploring jazz a bit more now that I have had that experience.