Jazz could be heard echoing late into the night, paying tribute to a legend of jazz himself.
The NIU School of Music held their first Jazz Faculty Recital of the year at 7 p.m. Monday and kicked it off with a bang.
Paying tribute to Benny Golson, an American bebop and hard bop jazz saxophonist who passed away in September, the Faculty Recital was performed by six music professors and a graduate assistant with confidence and astonishing efficiency.
The musicians were Professor Geof Bradfield on the saxophone, Instructor Mark Davis on the Piano, graduate assistant Spencer Mackey on the trombone, Marlene Rosenberg on the double bass, Professor Pharez Whitted on the trumpet, Professor Rodrigo Vilanueva Conroy on the drums and Professor Bobby Broom on the guitar.
Colin Dorion, a graduate student majoring in jazz studies, shared the importance of Benny Golson’s legacy and his music being remembered and respected.
“Benny Golson is important and it is nice to hear his music,” Dorion said. “It is rather special to hear a world-class musician’s CD live.”
At the beginning of the event, Jazz Studies Director Roosevelt Griffin III gave a brief introduction of the musicians on stage and discussed the first six songs that would be performed at the recital.
The songs performed in the recital were “Stablemates,” “Little Karin,” “Are You Real,” “Take a Number from 1 to 10,” “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March.”
Each song was played with remarkable precision. Some songs such as “Little Karin” and “Take Number from 1 to 10” were smooth and steady, blending all instruments into one heavenly hymn. Other songs had a more peppy, upbeat and swing-style tempo to them such as “Are You Real” and “Blues March.”
Ryan Bills, a graduate student in jazz studies, enjoyed the concert but wished he got to hear the music more clearly.
“Well it’s always great to see the professors all get to play with each other, you know,” Bills said. “If I had one piece of constructive criticism, it’s that I think the concert hall is actually not the best acoustically for jazz music. With this kind of music clarity is really important and the drums, bass and piano get all washed together, so it would be nice to see NIU putting this kind of stuff up in more acoustically representative spaces like the Recital Hall.”
The livestream of the performance can be watched on the official YouTube channel of the NIU School of Music. Their next performance is the Combofest scheduled for Nov. 11.
