Tuesday at U-Hour the Kellogg Sax Quartet and the Cal Poly Jazz Sax Quartet jammed at an outdoor show for students at the University Theatre breezeway.
Conducted by professor Lori Huff, both quartets played a wide variety of pieces ranging from jazz to classical saxophone. From Duke Ellington to Gordon Goodwin, the audience was in for a great performance.
The quartets have been around for only a couple of years, but in that short time they have been able to recruit amazing saxophonists and perform spectacular shows.
The sax quartet is part of a bigger ensemble that includes the woodwind quartet. According to Huff, the sax quartet was started two years ago.
"It started out with only three members, and it's been building up to where we have nine members in it this quarter, so we were able to have two quartets perform different styles of music," said Huff.
The Kellogg Quartet finished its set with "Jericho," a piece arranged by American composer Paul Yoder.
The piece gave a Dick Tracy movie feeling. The thought of the1930s and mobsters came to mind.
The performance really picked up during the second half when the Jazz Quartet performed.
Starting off with "Swing Low, Saint," a piece arranged by Eric J. Wilson, the piece started off slow-paced and sounding like a lullaby.
It picked up into a fast swing tempo and finished off just as it started.
Followed by "When I Fall In Love," a piece by composers Edward Heyman and Vincent Young and arranged by Huff, the audience was put into a romantic state of mind.
The piece was slow-paced with low sounds.
The performance was finished with American composer Gordon Goodwin's "Diffusion," which consisted of three parts.
"The first two pieces … they were kind of a filler. We were really going for 'Diffusion,' which is a hard piece by a really well known and respected jazz composer, so, like, that's pretty much what we've been working on," said James Goese, a fourth-year music student. "The music department tries to put on free music concerts all the time."
Because the jazz quartet is so small, it is always asked to perform because it can assemble quickly and to gain a significant amount of interest in the department.
The first, "Allegro," sounded as if it were music that was meant to be put in a "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon.
The soprano sax had an important presence during the piece.
"I was playing the soprano saxophone. The soprano is typically the lead voice because it is the highest, but some pieces do call for alto," said Darrell Tung,a fourth-year commercial music student.
Tung has been participating in the quartet for three years. The second of the three was "Swing," which put the vibe of swing dancing in the atmosphere, almost as if The Brian Setzer Orchestra were playing.
The performance was finished off with "Hip Hop," which sounded just like its name.
Be the first to comment on this article!