Michael Sova

MUS 317: Evolution of Jazz and Rock

Concert Report 1

25 September 2019

Monday night, I attended a concert in Sheldon Hall of the Mark Lomax Quartet. Sheldon

is not the ideal place for a concert, due to the parallel walls, elevator next door, and flat floor, but

it was adequate for the performance. Although the music might have sounded a little better in a

different venue, I don’t believe it noticeably affected the performance. However, the crowd was

an interesting aspect of the concert. Most likely due to the type of music being performed, the

crowd was larger, and on average younger (I would estimate) than most other concerts I have

been to in Sheldon. The crowd was really into the music and that made the concert more

enjoyable.

The band performed small group jazz with a number of styles. I was able to pick out

(with some help from the program), blues forms, AABA form, ballad style, and a little bit of

Latin feeling. The Latin piece threw me off at first because in the beginning it sounded a bit like

a ballad, but with the drummer using sticks instead of brushes. However, it then became more

noticeably Latin sounding, with the drummer doing rim shots on the snare, straight eighths on

the ride, and the bassist playing a Cuban-esque bass line.

Within the music, I noticed a lot of piano comping, which makes sense, as the piano was

the only instrument that could play chords. However, the pianist also took several soloists,

during which the solo would outline the harmony while the bass marked the chord changes. The

saxophonist also soloed, although he didn’t play anything when he wasn’t soloing. The drummer
played lots of ride rhythms and the bassist frequently played walking bass, which are both

common in jazz music. Most of the music was in minor keys, and had very intricate parts with

fast notes, extended harmony, and complex rhythms.

At the beginning of the concert, Mark Lomax talked to the audience about how 400: An

Afrikan Epic was a series of 12 albums that describe the story of Africa through music. To write

the music, the group brought together African history, popular music, church music, and the

blues, among other things. The piece they performed at the concert was a nine movement piece

titled “Tales of the Black Experience.” Once he told the crowd this, none of the musicians said

anything to the audience until the end of the show. The communication between the musicians

was mostly nonverbal cues, but occasionally one or more of the musicians would make some sort

of exclamation of approval after or during a solo. These exclamations weren’t words, but were

instead just noises like “mmm” or “ahhh.”

I didn’t notice anything particularly innovative that the group did within the piece

performed, but the entire project is certainly unique. Like Lomax mentioned at the beginning of

the concert, I absolutely noticed influences from the blues and African rhythms, but I didn’t

catch anything that reminded me of church music. Some of the piano solos sounded to me like

late Romantic piano music, with intricate series of notes, shifting tonality, and extended

harmonies while sounding beautiful.

My overall opinion of the group and the music was positive. Although I wouldn’t go see

the group again, because much of the music wasn’t what I typically listen to for enjoyment, I

really liked the bluesier sections, like much of the Emancipation movement, and the piano parts.