Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

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.

The Juilliard Jazz Quartet was the first musical band of any genre that I have seen live. So, in a sense, my concert virginity was taken from me.

First of all, I wan’t completely sold on the idea of Jazz. I had never listened to jazz, and didn’t know of any one who did. The only experience I had with Jazz was listening to my high school jazz band., and that wasn’t a great experience. Therefore, I was apprehensive when attending the Jazz Concert, unsure of my reaction to the performance.

The Juilliard Jazz Quartet blew my mind. These guys, probably some the best in the country, were  unbelievable. I especially enjoyed Ron Blake’s composition, “Ah, Rio”. The piece had a smoothness to it that I couldn’t seem to find in any other piece. However, there were moments during the concert where I felt the music was choppy, and out of sync. Maybe it was because of my inexperience with Jazz music. While I was listening to the concert, I would sometimes close my eyes, in my attempt to experience jazz in a new sense. I felt that with my eyes closed, I was able to hear the music as a cohesive unit, with no one instrument capturing my attention more than the other, than when I listened with my eyes opened, at which point my focus would land directly on Ron Blake and his saxophone.

The Julliard Jazz Quartet was something different to see. It’s not that I’ve never seen live jazz, but I’ve never seen it with a large audience. I’ve been to other concerts, too (as I favored some more than others). But there was something intricate about the Jazz Quartet on Tuesday night.

As soon as the performance began, I couldn’t take my eyes off the drummer. I found his techniques and posture very exciting and calm at the same time. I’ve been playing the drums since I was in 5th grade, so I guess I was leaning towards the drummer in that way; it was more associative. The drummer seemed like he was leading and he was so interactive that I felt like I was part of the band. “Nutty” was a song that had a large drum solo and I guessed it before the song even started, which made me appreciate it even more. Although, I was ecstatic to hear and see this song, it wasn’t my favorite.

“For Duke” was my absolute favorite because of it’s softness. It’s something that is so hard to explain. The way I think about it is, there are songs that I have on my iTunes, but there are songs that I have both in my iTunes and my phone. That happens when I really like a song and that is how I felt about “For Duke”; I would put it in my phone to listen to as well.

I enjoyed going to the Julliard Jazz Quartet because it was a different experience that I would do again.

I’m unsure about how I feel about jazz as of right now. I think it would have to take some adjustment because I’m so used to listening to music with singers and for me I noticed that without a singer it just starts to seem like background music to me. Jazz singers are my favorite, next to soul and R&B singers. I got so excited when the drummer picked up the mic because I thought he was going to sing and from hearing his voice, it seemed like he could actually be able to sing well. I start zoning out for some reason which is something I’m hoping will change. I know that if I throw that habit out the window, I would have enjoyed my experience so much more. But my favorite piece of all was the last one called Little Jordan written by Karl Allen. The backstory was so sweet and listening to the piece, I felt like I can assume that it was about a child even without the backstory because of the change in dynamic. There were parts that seemed almost menacing and as if you were up to no good and then it goes to a softer tone that shows the love he has for his son even despite all of the trouble and destruction a little kid can bring. Even if they flush your most prized possession down the toilet, you can’t help but stop yourself from having a nervous breakdown when you seeing the loving smiles on their faces.

And on that note, love is exactly what you felt throughout the room. Not mushy gushy love, but the welcoming kind of feeling. The dynamic between the quartet and how Karl Allen was telling us how grateful they were for us and our support. It had this warming informal-ness that I loved. It was really that audience-performer relationship. At times my eyes would wander and I would look around at the other people in the audience. My eyes landed more often on two particular people in the front. One was an older woman, who had quite a unique hat on and she was basically dancing in her seat as was the other person I saw in the front. Their reactions to the quartet showed that this was definitely the music that they grew up with. That got me thinking about the differences between the music then and now. I bet some of the elders in that woman’s time probably were covering their ears in disgust just as my dad covers his ears whenever he hears music of today.

But anyways, I guess one other thing that had my confused about jazz initially was not knowing that some parts were improvised. Liz was sitting next to me and we were wondering why people were clapping in the middle of the piece, especially before the saxophonist began playing. That really amazes me. Some parts of the pieces,  I felt like I was at some fancy gala that required a glasses of champagne, black ties, passed hors d’oeuvres, and long sequined gowns – I though it was funny because Professor kept saying that he felt the need to be in a club, filled with smoke and what not. But, I guess that shows how much jazz has leaked through everything. I never really was associated with jazz except through the cocktail hours at weddings or the jazz some of my friends sang.

All-in-all, I’m extremely grateful for this experience. It has opened my eyes to the face that music can be beautiful even without a voice, and most of all I was able to get closer to the people in our class with the help of Snapchat and the amazing combination that smoked salmon and cream cheese make on a bagel.

*notice the red hat in the front – that was the woman I was talking about.

Jazz is such a wonderful genre of music. In my opinion, it is the ultimate musical style you can express emotions and feelings through orchestration and personal playing style. The boundaries of Jazz are extremely loose, leaving massive room for personal touch within the music. As a jazz musician I can vouch for these opinions. When I’m on stage about to improvise with either my guitar or saxophone, the moment before playing I realize what I do next is completely up to me. This is not very common in other genres of music. When I’m taking a solo, the voice of the instrument and my creative spark become one, and it is a truly epic experience.

When I found out we were going to see the Julliard Jazz Quartet, I became super excited immediately. I love going to see jazz, and a quartet comprised of Julliard’s Jazz professors would definitely prove to be interesting. I thought they picked a great variety of music, choosing songs that counteracted each others’ emotional overtones as well as musical style. I specifically liked the Thelonious Monk piece “Nutty” and the ballad “For Duke”. The saxophonist had a strong, smooth tone that bounced up and down arpeggios like it was nothing. The drummer was the obvious leader of the band, his syncopation rhythmically delicious and his intensity inspiring. The piano player was a grand accompanist, with a Monk-esque style that created beauty through dissonance. The bass player was damn solid, and his tone was comfortingly warm. He didn’t showboat like some Jazz bassists, and always kept the time, which is the most important task.

We discussed in class how the quartet thanked the crowd for coming to the show, showed their appreciation for our open minds and even went as far as to say “they love us”. To some, this might be a strange notion, that men you’ve never met in your life before could love you simply for listening. As a musician, I could not agree more with the quartet. Whether they like it or not, the audience is a very crucial player in the success of a performance. When you’re about to solo, you can feel the eyes of the crowd over you, and you can feel their anticipation in a glance. You try to come off as cool and collective, but inside you’re about to explode with emotion and passion. You feed off of the crowds’ a gasped mouths and widened eyes. their emotions become entangled with your own, and all of a sudden music is flowing through you and you’re not even sure where its coming from. That is why the quartet can so abruptly fall in love with the audience. Every performance is different than the last. Different people, different temperaures in the room, different clothes, different emotions and thoughts, different air humidity, different pasts and futures. This all plays into the success of a performance, guiding the music and its musicians through the here and now.