Charlene Santoso 1258667 Concert Report #3 Music 33

Last Friday, October 3, 2008, I went to Madison Campus to attend the concert of one of Santa Monica Colleges great music teacher, Charles Owens. The concert name is Charles Owens Quintet Show. This performance took a place in The Edye Second Space at Santa Monica College Peforming Arts Center. When I came to the concert, the room was very crowded. I think there are a lot of music students who came to watch this concert. The concert is a fifty minutes duration concert. The band played five songs during the concert. The performers of this Charles Owens Quintet Show are Charles Owens himself as a leader and a saxophonist, Peter Smith as a piano player, Brian Torres as a trombone player, Hendry Franklin as a bass player, and also Alfa Lezon as a drums player. The first song that was played by the Charles Owens Quintet Show is Yea, yea,yea which composed by the saxophonist, Eddie Harris. This song is such a festive piece package in fast tempo light samba influence. The song had a very spirited opening in which all instrument played together; after

that , each instrument interpreted the piece on their own, accompanied by not more than three instruments. As indicated by its title, the song that was mostly dominated by the upbeat piano, intense drums and free-soaring trombone left me with a very joyful emotion at the end when the instruments played back together again. After finished playing the first song, the band directly began to play the second song titled Sham Time which composed by Eddie Harris too. This relatively slower song boosted the magical abilities of Charles Owens that were strongly accompanied by Brian Torres trombone. Even though it still maintained its upbeat melody, this song did not sound as joyful as the first one; as Owens called it a funky jazz piece, it gave me quite a sense of confusion, in a way. Yet, it sounded more youthful. Eternal Triangle that Composed by Sonny Stitt is the third song. This Charlie Parker bebop-style piece demonstrated an eye-opening rhythm changing. Under the shadow of a fast tempo and rich improvisation,

saxophone and trombone played a great variation of rhythms based on the harmonic structure the five instruments built. On the other hand, with the clave it made, the bass represented a slower tempo of the song.

Another song by Eddie Harris titled Boogie Woogie Bossanova wasplayed in the concert. Influenced by Brazilian samba, the slowest song of the show gave me a strong sense of caf jazz. While it did not really boost the specialty of each player, it presented a pleasant combination of the five instruments in its swinging mood, so that it sounded very chill and relaxing. The last song is Wild Fire which was played in its rather slow tempo, this was the song I liked the least. Unlike other pieces, this blues song sounded rather sad and angry. It was also the shortest song on the show. Overall, I really liked this concert. Charles Owens Quintet really

brought their world-class standards to the stunningly small stage of The Edye Second Space. Not expecting to hear such inspiring song, Charles

Owens, whose credibility is out of doubt for having recorded and performed with a rich array of world-class jazz musicians as Miles Davis, colored my night with the five blissful, soothing pieces. While boosting high proficiency of orchestration, improvisation and rhythm changes, the overall show was dominated by Charles Owens saxophone and Brian Torres trombone. Yet, the other three instruments still deserved as much credit as they together harmonized the pieces that were relatively fast-paced. Compared to the first concert I saw by Greg Osby Quintet that tended to be more

contemporary, this concert impressed me more in terms of the variety of genres it presented. Im so glad that I came to this concert because this Charles Owens Quintet Show really entertained me.