Battle of the Big Bands was a stirring performance of jazz that included both musicians and singers alike.
Two dueling big bands brought a lot of excitement to the stage with this unique twist on orchestra performances.
The Citrus College Blue Note Orchestra and Azusa Pacific University Jazz Ensemble performed back and forth, as well as together.
The two groups performed selections of jazz music directly from films, or altered versions of songs featured in films.
I was surprised to hear a western classic “The Magnificent Seven”from the movie of the same title to start the show. This turned out to be a fun way to start the performance and grab the crowd’s attention with both bands participating in the song.
Audience members guffawed loudly when they saw movie clips projected onto a screen above the musicians.
Classic scenes from “Black and Tan”, “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Errand Boy”, among others, were shown.
One of the favorites was “Blues in Hoss Flat,” composed by Frank Foster. The mouth movements and other actions of actor Jerry Lewis in a movie clip of “The Errand Boy” were coordinated to match this song.
This meant that boisterous trumpet solos from Peter Gutierrez would fill the moments when Lewis would open his mouth, acting as an almost musical speech. The result led to rambunctious laughter from the crowd.
Jazzy solos from the alto sax Jordan Guzman and crisp piano solos from Nathan Pinto filled other moments of the scene.
I was constantly tapping my hands and feet to the beat of the drums. Other times I was twirling my fingers to and fro in reaction to the thundering of brass instruments.
Sprinkled into songs were solos from singers and musicians of Citrus College and APU.
Gabriel Mora of APU Jazz Ensemble impressively performed solos, singing and playing tenor sax to “Dat Dere” composed by Bobby Timmons. I was blown away by his ability to sing, pick up his instrument and immediately burst into a saxophone solo.
The finale was a performance of “Caravan,” composed by Duke Ellington. Joe Verbal of APU and Yota Awanao of Citrus traded drum solos that led to a round of cheering and applause from the crowd.
Quick and complex hits on the drum set were hard for the eye to follow, but fantastic to hear.
Once the last note had been played, the crowd left the building in murmured excitement into the rainy night.
