The first pair in this group, Ryan Han-Kyul Yoo and May Claire La Plante, sang a duet version of "Till There Was You " by the Beatles. The song was nicely arranged to fit the jazz genre, and it became a pleasant, slow jazz song. .
The pair's voices complemented each other really well. The second performance was by Mariangela Spiezia, who sang to a Spanish song. While she was really engaging with the audience, and even danced during an instrumental break, the song didn't sound very jazzy. It sounded closer to salsa music. The third pair consisted of Zana Messia and Natalie Brainin. The two girls sang a song called "Everything Must Change " by Randy Crawford. This performance being a jazz showcase, I expected the song to be arranged into a slow jazz ballad; however, this was not the case. The song did not fit the jazz song at all, and it just sounded like a slow pop song. Their performance featured a trumpet solo, which was probably the only jazzy aspect that was included. The girls did sing extremely well, though. .
The next group to come up to the stage was Jazz Combo Four, directed by Charles Owens. The group consisted of Ryan Sanders (alto saxophone), Marty Dumaual (piano), and Ramin Abrams (Bass). Although the program mentioned there would be a flute, there was no flute at all in their performance. I was a little disappointed at this, because I've always been curious about how the flute sounds in jazz music. The group's performance mainly showcased the alto saxophone player, with the piano and saxophone accompanying it the majority of the time. Their song consisted a few extremely long saxophone solos, with one piano solo in the middle. While I enjoyed the performance in the beginning, I got a little bored towards the middle because the saxophone solo began to sound very redundant and predictable. The one part that peaked my interested was when the bass player used a bow in the middle of their performance.
According to Ingrid Byerly, a former professor of ethnomusicology at Duke University, music, "served the purpose of mobilizing social change, whether with the more concrete intentions of invoking peace or threatening war, or with the more abstract intentions of recovering or reflecting a past, suggesting or establishing a present, and projecting or prophesying a future."" ...