Jazz Ensemble Concert

On the 24th of March, 2006, I participated in my eight and final BYUH Jazz Ensemble concert. I guess you could say this was the culmination of my school musical career, considering I will probably never have the opportunity to play with a school ensemble again. After nine years of playing in school bands (man, that's hard to believe), I was able to end on a great note.

Kaimi jamming:

This has been a really good semester for the Jazz Ensemble. It seems like the group goes through good and bad years, depending upon which players we gain and loose every semester. This year we had about eight seniors, many of which who have been with the group as long as me, so we had a strong ensemble to say the least. Going out on tour really helped the group increase its level of performance because it gave us a change to get out in public and become more comfortable on stage. Thank you Maui tour!

A jazz musician's true posture:

That night, we had a great performance. We played about nine tunes, ranging from songs like Channel One Suite, Girl from Ipanema, Wanna Be Like You, Come Sunday, to The Incredibles movie medley; all of which are songs that the whole group enjoys playing.

Channel One Suite:

We had a show order for our music, and I had been bickering Dr. Duerden (our director) all week to change the order to one more to my liking, because I thought he was arranging the music in a way that would be anti-climatic (plus I wanted to solo in the last few songs). Right when we were in the middle of our show, he changed the songs to my request. I was stoked.

Scott and I taking turns:

I had two solos in the concert; A smooth slow melodic one in Channel One Suite, and a jazz blues solo in My Dinner With Ronald that we played for the hana hou (encore). We all had a great time playing, and all the seniors got leid.

More Channel One Suite:

To really put the icing on the cake, Dr. Duerden pulled a few strings and got the campus TV studio to record the concert. It was a collective effort of approximately twenty people and five cameras, so I can only imagine it will turn out awesome. I look forward to watching our show from a different perspective.

All pau:

In retrospect, I think I can say that my experiences with the BYUH Jazz Ensemble have and will be some of my most cherished memories from this school. It's helped me develop my musical ability far beyond what I would have been able to achieve on my own. I remember back in junior high and high school thinking to myself how great it would be to perform in a college group, and after it has all been said and done, I can honestly saw I wasn't disappointed.

Tyler, Me, & Raiatea:

I consider myself very fortunate to have had the oppertunity to stay with music. I believe it was my participation in it that allowed me to be admitted to this university, because when I applied the average acceptance rate for high school seniors was eleven percent. I can't thank music enough, and how it has enriched my life in so many ways. I encourage anyone to pursue it if that is your desire, because at least for me it instills a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment that few things do.

Coming Soon: The End Is Near