The Visual & Performing Arts Center auditorium seating was filled top to bottom on June 17, where free admission invited the community to groove with the De Anza College Jazz Band conducted by Professor Jordan Mitchell.
The concert began with three pieces with multiple solos by string and piano players. String ensembles aren’t typical for jazz and are usually reserved for classical music, as seen in the Spring Concert Orchestra performance on June 15.
Daniel Choi, 19, music major, played jazz for the first time as a pianist after training in classical music for most of his life. He said that he had fun practicing and jamming with his classmates.
“Classical (music), you play it, you interpret it how you want,” Choi said. “(With) jazz you can make your own song, that’s what makes jazz really cool.”
For inspiration to become a better jazz musician, Choi listens to his classmates.
Dorian Martinka, music student, was impressed with how quick musicians assembled the music for the concert this quarter. As she played multiple solos on the violin, the audience’s eyes were locked on her bow movements and colorful asymmetrical outfit that matched the exciting jazz, but mismatched her quartet’s all-black dress code.
Choi and Martinka were part of the string quartet and piano, which played “Blue Bossa” by Kenny Dorham, “Black Orpheus” by Luiz Bonfa and “Girl From Ipanema” by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
The strings and piano passed around the melody and after each of their solos the auditorium applauded.
“‘Black Orpheus’ was my favorite,” Martinka said. “It was in a 1964 black-and-white classic movie. It’s a rendition of the Greek story of Orpheus and it takes place in Brazil.”
Culture was a big theme throughout the concert. The music was selected by students with the requirement that “it had to be cultural,” said Mitchell.
The Jazz Band continued the show with salsa, and city pop.
The last time De Anza offered jazz classes was in 2018.
“They really supported the jazz program back then,” Martinka said. She has been playing the violin for 12 years and started learning jazz at De Anza, but she currently attends West Valley College as a result of its discontinuation.
A fresh community of students enjoy jazz’s reinstatement, among them is Jesus Landa, 20, business major. He is enrolled in music history classes but said this is his first time listening to jazz live.
“This one was free so I came to watch it,” Landa said. “I really liked the last one.”
The last song was a city pop song by the name of “Plastic Love” produced by Mariya Takeuchi sung by Amy Murato along with the Jazz Band performing in front of a large pink screen to fit the mood. Mitchell explained that city pop emerged in Japan during the 70s and 80s at the influence of Black soldiers and funk music.
“It’s this dance and disco music,” Mitchell said. “It’s about love, having fun, youth. So many great things … a lot of my students love city pop.”
In between set changes, Mitchell consistently invited concert goers to dance or sing along.
“I’m very interactive with the crowd,” Mitchell said. “What I hate about concerts is how boring they can be. You go to an instrumental concert and everyone is stiff and bored and everyone is just sitting nodding their heads.”
Mitchell hopes to expand the music program with more courses like mariachi and hip hop production. A challenge the school faces with maintaining courses is them not meeting quorum. Mariachi courses were set to start this Spring quarter, but the less than 20 students who enrolled were forced to drop.
“I tried twice to get into that (mariachi) class but it has been undersubscribed,” Martinka said. “I was looking again and said, ‘wait the jazz combo is back.’”
Mitchell will be working with the outreach department to advertise music classes in hopes to enroll students and grow the music department. The Spring Jazz Concert attracted many community members and is building towards becoming the award winning ensemble it once was.
