The UConn Jazz Lab Band took to the stage at von der Mehden Recital Hall Monday night to showcase their talents with some energetic music. More than 40 people came to hear the band, directed by John Mastroianni.
An up-tempo, 1940s-style swing piece began the night. An arrangement of "Magic Flea," a famous Count Basie piece, featured a solo by the first tenor saxophone. The foot-tapping syncopation for which the Count's orchestra was famous was showed through the intricate rhythms that were traded back and forth by the brass and wind sections.
A change of pace followed with "Con Alma," a Dizzy Gillespie jazz standard. This chart incorporated both bop jazz and Latin jazz syncopation. The first tenor returned for another solo on this piece.
"Peri's Scope," a Bill Evans song, was up next, a faster-than-moderate tempo swing piece featuring the brass, woodwinds and rhythm sections playing three different rhythms that locked together to create a cohesive piece. There were call-and-response sections between the trumpets and saxes, and solos by first tenor and the second trumpet.
Finishing the first half of the concert was the Lionel Hampton piece "Hamp's Boogie Woogie." Many soloists, including alto and baritone saxophones, trumpet, trombone and guitar took turns on this faster, traditional 12-bar blues. A big shout chorus closed the chart.
After a 10-minute intermission, the Jazz Lab Band was back on stage, opening with "Crescent City Stomp," an up-tempo piece by Eric Richards that uses a cross between a normal blues progression and the 8-bar "stomp progression" that was popular before the 1950s.
The kick drum propelled the ensemble through, with alto, trumpet and guitar solos before a drum solo near the end.
Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Agua de Beber" brought a bossa nova feel to the stage, with the relaxed, bass-driven feel that was pioneered by "The Girl From Ipanema." Tenor, alto and trumpet solos abounded.
The final chart of the night, and the band's tour de force, was an arrangement of the famous "Caravan," composed by Juan Tizol and popularized by Duke Ellington and his band in the late 1930s. Constantly shifting tempos and rhythmic feels didn't deter the band, which left room for solos in nearly every section, and even a simultaneous solo from the first alto, first tenor and baritone saxophones.
The performance's upbeat, foot-tapping music was appreciated by the audience. "They put on such a great show tonight, as always," said Alyssa Stafne, a 5th-semester theater studies major who said she has regularly attended jazz performances at von der Mehden in her time at UConn. "I only wish more people would come to these; they're really worth it."
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