The soothing sound of jazz music filled Ford-Crawford Hall on Tuesday night as members of the the all campus jazz ensemble & jazz combos performed a variety of arrangements.
The ensemble is a group put together by directors in the Jacobs School of Music and on Nov. 29, the ensemble's performance included pieces by Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.
The show was directed by Ana Nelson and Barclay Moffitt. Nelson said she is a second year master’s degree student with a double major in classical clarinet and jazz saxophone, specializing in saxophone and composition.
“It’s been an awesome experience leading the big band,” said Ana Nelson, director of the all campus ensemble. “All these students, they don’t have to be in big band, but they want to take it.”
All campus bands are for students who are non-music majors who want to continue their music studies, according to the Jacobs School of Music website. The music school offers several different ensembles for students not studying within the school.
The group holds auditions in the fall and spring and have performances once a semester, according to the music school's website.
The first band to take the stage was a combos group that included instruments ranging from flutes and trumpets to a vibraphone.
After the first song, “Little Sunflower” by American jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, Joy Burton, a vibraphonist for the combo group, introduced the musicians on stage.
“I’d say a lot of them are new, I have a couple people that have maybe been in it for a couple of semesters,” Nelson said. “I think over half of them are new.”
The first ensemble ended its performance with a piece by saxophonist Benny Golson titled “Whisper Not”. Flutist Karena Crutchfield soloed, as well as a few other members from the jazz combo.
Moffitt then introduced his group of five musicians, who were each featured in combinations of solos throughout the performance. The group started with Roy Hargrove’s “Strasbourg/St. Denis” and continued with an arrangement titled “Never Ending.”
Moffitt, who joined in on the final song with the saxophone, told the audience that this ensemble arranged some of their own pieces for the show.
“They came up with interesting stuff,” Moffitt said.
The final jazz ensemble performed was led by Nelson, who conducted six different pieces with a group of 18 musicians. Some of the songs included Bill Pott’s “Big Swing Face” and Thad Jones’s “Ahunk Ahunk.”
Chazz Lucenti, a business major and bass trombonist for the ensemble, said that he plays in the ensemble for fun. Lucenti said that this was his last performance, as he is graduating at the end of the semester.
“Being outside of the music school, you don’t play anything anymore,” Lucenti said. “So I find every opportunity I can to play.”
