MUS 116 Concert Response
Clayton ButlerÂ
10/23/20
On October 23rd, I went to Herman’s Jazz Club in Victoria with some other students in 116, and we had the pleasure of listening to Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whiteley perform. Their bandmates included Ashley Grey on the piano, Damien Grey on the drums, and I never caught the bassists name. The concert was in the genre of blues and jazz style music, and their pieces, in order include:
- Struttin with some bbq – Louis Armstrong
- Every Times it rains it rains pennies – Frank Sinatra
- Little Sleepy Village – Diana Braithwaite and Chris WhiteleyÂ
- September in the Rain – Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy
- Rum and GingerAle – ?
- I was telling him about you –Â Diana Braithwaite and Chris WhiteleyÂ
- hound dog – Little Richard
- Sweet Georgia brown – Ben Bernie
- Our love is here to stay – Natalie Cole
- Mystery train – Junior Parker
- Sure had a wonderful time last night – B.B. King
- Bye bye Bird – Sonny Boy Williamson II
The structure of the space was formed of: performance wood staging, brick and normal drywall enclosure, carpet flooring, about a fourteen foot ceiling, and plastic sheets hung up for COVID protocols. Appearance of the performers was formal, Diana was wearing a dress the same as the pianist, and the men were wearing suits.
The Instruments in this concert included: Grand acoustic piano, Drums, Upright bass, Trumpet, Electric semi hollow guitar, Resonator guitar, Harmonica, and Vocals. Dynamics I noticed between the two genres were that the blues were more energetic/louder sounding songs, and the jazz was mostly laid back and smooth/soft. The vocals sounded the exact same, so not much dynamics in them at all. The texture of the blues going off dynamics felt more full and beefy, but again energetic as to not weigh down on the heaviness. The Jazz felt light, cool in a sense, and It felt wrong I wasnât enjoying a beer while watching. Rhythm and tempo varied in pieces, for example âSweet Georgia Brownâ it was more upbeat and bouncy, with compound and syncopated rhythm and a clear swing to it, whereas âOur love is here to Stayâ was very slow and sway-y on a simple 4/4 beat. Forms and relationships were that blues seemed to all have the 12 bar blues progressions, and had a lot of solos. Jazz had a lot of the same vibes to it, doing a lot of soloing within each piece, and doing all the regular jazz stuff (Iâm not too familiar with the form). The drummer was most extreme to me, his drum solos went off in rhythm and dynamics and I couldnât help but watch him most often, even when the singers were singing. Also another extreme was when Chris started playing the harmonica with no hands. You heard me, he threw that thing in his mouth and played it like he was moving it with his hands, I was SHOCKED! Oh he was also playing blues guitar at the same time⊠All these elements work out to produce specific electrochemical impulses that then go through my ears that I process as music. I believe almost any kind of music relates to the music covered in class, because a lot of what we’re doing is learning how to listen and pull apart music. Of course weâre going into the history as well, but it’s a lot to do with the music we see and hear today too.
Damien Grey had my attention with his passionate drum playing whenever I wasn’t dosing off. He had a wide variety of drumming techniques used throughout; i.e. doing wirebrush circles on the snare, playing with a towel on the high hat and sometimes the snare, and he wasnât afraid to hold back on his drum solos, it dragged me in. I was only attentive to Damien 50% of the time though. I was also intrigued to see all the instruments Chris could play, but other than that I wasnât attentive to the slow jazz. It wasnât because it was necessarily bad to watch, but that music makes me sit back and think, instead of having my eyes on the performers. My favourite songs were the blues songs, I enjoyed the upbeat stir, the pingy guitar with harmonica, and the drum beats. One in particular I liked was Rum and Gingerail, though I donât think that is what it is actually called. The drums were most prominent in the song, and Chris played the harmonica without hands. I was shocked and felt a little anxious, because I have a harmonica and an electric drum set at home that I never really touch. It was the sound and performance that I reacted to, and my mood changed shortly after because I donât like beating myself up over not touching those instruments. The concert went back and forth between jazz and blues songs, so it was more or less the same throughout. I sadly didnât enjoy Diana’s voice too much. I think if she added more dynamics, passion and involvement to her lyrics the songs would have sounded one hundred times better. Her performance, if she was singing a sad song, or an ecstatic song, all sounded the exact same to me. The selections of pieces couldnât have been to my taste because I’m only familiar with the famous compositions from that genre, so I have no complaints on their repertoire. It was sort of a familiar experience, Iâve seen a couple jazz performances, but the blues was totally new which is why I was more attentive. No theatrical dimension was portrayed to me, maybe a tiny bit in certain lyrics, she might do a gesture that corresponds.
Overall I enjoyed the experience a lot, especially right now since it’s very hard to witness any live performances. I had a lot of fun being able to watch with my friends too, since covid rules have messed up a lot of social activities. Yes, the performance could have been more exciting if Diana put some oomph into her singing and lyricism, but all in all it was just great to be out and listening.
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