Jazz Ensemble II
Do you like jazz? Well, the UW-Whitewater Department of Music presents three amazing concerts directed by lecturer Brad Townsend and Dr. Michael Hackett. These concerts took place Tuesday, April 8, Thursday, April 10 and Thursday, April 17 at the Light Recital Hall. The Jazz Ensemble II featured four pieces with a nice beat and tempo. The pieces are “Hot House,” “15 Minutes Late,” “Alone Together,” “The Jitterbug Waltz” and “Hunting Wabbits.” The show had a nice calming effect on the audience, a turn of adventure, and amazing solos from the band members.
Jazz Combos and Improvisers Orchestra
“We are not a combo,” Townsend said. “We are called the improvisers orchestra and are a fully improvised ensemble, there is no music, nothing written down. We just listen to each other and have a musical conversation and create a composition in real-time.”
This is something new at Whitewater and Towsend has been directing the ensemble. The concert also featured Jazz combos I, II and III who are all different and unique in their ways. The Jazz Combo III was a three-man band featuring bassist Nolan Warner, guitarist Adam Nevala and Jacob Hucke on drums. Their last song was written by Adam Nevala with the inspiration of trying to focus on homework, leading him to the composure of his song “Focus.”
Jazz Ensemble I
The Jazz Ensemble I was a pleasant performance featuring seven stunning songs and some were student choices. Two of the pieces featured vocalist McKenna Camacho who is a junior studying choral music education.
“I’m very grateful to be able to sing with the jazz band,” Camacho said. “Dr. Hackett is amazing to work with, he let me pick out the ‘Lover Come Back To Me.’ One of the biggest challenges was I am the only student singing and just keeping in time with the band.”
Hackett spoke briefly about the piece “Young Blood,” which features soloists Ryan Maddix on trumpet, Teegan Cross on tenor sax and Lauren Koslowski on alto sax.
“I was able to play pretty well tonight,” Koslowski said. “I thought my solo went pretty well. I managed to hit an altissimo G at the end. I think it’s pretty fun, and the band is a group of very talented individuals, they always make it fun during rehearsal.”
