I was excited to attend BRAZZ, as I have an affinity for jazz music. I also have a great appreciation for brass instruments – although I do not play myself, I have friends who are brass musicians who have told me of their struggles. BRAZZ was a Wednesday Noon Hour concert put on by the UBC School of Music, and featured five trumpets, four trombones, three horns, a euphonium, a tuba, a piano, a bass, and drums.
The ensemble was introduced as a large jazz band, but with no saxophones and some extra brass instruments. This reminded me of a concept that we discussed in class: a consort – a group of instruments with sounds that blend nicely. This is was definitely the case for BRAZZ, as the brass instruments blended nicely to create a uniform sound.
Although the sounds for each instrument blended nicely, there were also efforts to highlight different instruments. Some pieces included call and response sections, where the trombones would play a short motif and the trumpets would respond with another immediate after. This reminded me of antiphons which we studied in class. Although BRAZZ certainly did not play religious music, the aspect of having alternating parts with a call and response format is similar.
In addition, I though that the selection of pieces that were performed did a good job of highlighting some instruments in certain pieces, while featuring other instruments in other pieces. In a number of the pieces, soloists on different instruments were featured, which nicely audibly broke up the piece into sections. One the reasons that I enjoy is jazz is for its improvised solos, which I find extremely impressive as it demonstrates the soloists’ musicality and virtuosity.
I’ve never played in a jazz band myself, but I thought it was interesting that BRAZZ didn’t have a conductor. Having some experience playing an in sub-par high school band myself, it was very impressive to me that the band was able to play through pieces cohesively and in time with one another despite not having a conductor for most of the program. Although the pianist, Fred Stride, did count the band in at the start of pieces and stood up to conduct the last few measures at the end.
Overall most pieces were homophonic in texture, with a single dominant melody line persisting throughout. The moments when a soloist was performing, the texture was homophonic as there was one single melody line (the soloists’) with no other melody that was in competing for the listeners’ attention. This homophony was contrasted with short polyphonic moments when the entire ensemble played, with different instruments playing different and contrasting parts simultaneously.
As the soloists played, they were accompanied the rhythm section, which was made up of the piano, drums, and bass. Although they played at the same time as the soloists, they were not competing for the listeners’ attention. This rhythm section reminded me of a basso continuo – the Baroque rhythm section that also accompanied the principle melody. Having written the midterm and being more familiar with musical concepts discussed in class, attending BRAZZ was not only interesting to listen to, but was interesting to think about the music in terms of terminology learned in class.