I attended the UBC Jazz Ensemble 1 Final concert, and I was very impressed with the talent and continuity of the bands sound. Fred Stride, the director of the band really showed great leadership in instructing and constructing discipline and excellence in students and band-mates. I would compare them to a jazz big band on how they sound and the art of improvisation. The song played were Point of Departure, by Dave Slonaker Sundown, by Bert Joris Monk’s Tango, by Fred Stride Sonata For Swee’pea, by Alana Broadbent, Eleanor Rigby, by Lennon and McCartney but arranged by Fred Stride All Heart by Billy Strayhorn The Rotten Kid by Buddy Greco. The instrumentalists were great in using each other in a polyphonic texture but when it came to soloist segments in the songs played monophonic texture. Thomas Hay, Mo Miao, James Dekker, Jamie Hicks, and Alexander Fetherstonhaugh really showed precise timing and execution when playing the saxophones. Caleb Robinson played the clarinet with a lot of confidence and excitement you could tell he really enjoyed playing in front of the crowd in Roy Barnett Music Hall. Michael Kim, Andrew Lennox, Heather Anderson, Justin Ratzburg, Jeremy Orsted did an outstanding job leading the trumpets. Kevin Lin, Anthony Rogers, Lucas O’Fee, Isaac Robinson and Sam Kaplan played trombones with emphasis on polyphonic texture.

Patrick Chan did a great job of demonstrating improvisation on the piano keys. Tom Gamble played the guitar with many great melodies. Yefeng Yin and Angus Lam played the bass where they used pizzicato to manipulate a great sound throughout the songs. Jaelem Bhate played Drums with great rhythm and tempo. And built a great sounding foundation for the rest of the band. I was highly impressed by the work of these students and it really brought to my attention the sacrifice and dedication my peers and director Fred Stride demonstrated. My favorite song that was played without a doubt was All Heart by Billy Strayhorn. I felt the songs melodic contour was very refreshing and smooth and the delivery was on point. Through this all im very impressed in the direction of the music program from a jazz standpoint. As a music junkie you may say, I really enjoy the sound of jazz and blues music. Going into this concert I didn’t expect much from it but I came out with higher expectations and was shocked by how talented these students are. Some of them not even being music majors I might add. It was such a good experience and would recommend anybody to enjoy the experience like I did.