On Monday, June 21st, the annual UNC Summer Jazz Workshop met for the start of the week. To end of a challenging first day of practicing, classes, and music making the students enrolled in the workshop were shown a virtuoisic display of Jazz music making from Assistant Professor Rahsaan Barber, UNC Wilmington Associate Professor Jerald Shynett and their jazz quintet composed of UNC Music Professors and Coordinators.
The concert was held in Moeser Auditorium on UNC’s campus and also hosted on YouTube for members of the workshop and family. The stream experienced some audio issues at start, but once those were out of the way the production really got moving.
The quintet itself was composed of an upright bass, accompanying piano, drumset, trombone and saxophone. Barber was on sax and Shynett was playing trombone. The setup was very interesting. In order to abide by the CDC’s guidelines and regulations for social distancing due to COVID-19, the rhythm section composed of the bass, piano, and drums were on stage in Moeser auditorium, while Rahsaan Barber and Jerald Shynett were in a separate room. However due to some audio engineering magic, you would never be able to tell as they all blended together very well on stream.
The first piece was very enjoyable to listen to, and sounded like essential jazz. Shynett’s solo playing reminded me of Louis Armstrong and his scat-singing and the way he’d play his trumpet. It was a gentle walking piece. I could almost smell the cigar smoke and cheap booze around me. It felt like being in Vegas in an old movie my parents would probably watch.
The second piece was entitled “Leap of Faith” and was written by Barber before he had his first kid, and his journey into becoming a father for the first time. It’s a faster tempo than the one before and feels adventurous. Like elevator music almost, but more fun. The soft cymbal taps combined with the toms and snare taps from the drummer really help set the mood and tone of the piece. The drum solo also really stood out to me by being an impressive display of both volume control and virtuousic playing.
The third piece was entitled “Pee Wee.” It started out slower than the two prior pieces, and used that slow momentum to fully build to their hard-hitting cadences. Barber and Shynett’s duets and solos were absolutely sublime. The way they were able to match each other and play off each other was absolutely brilliant.
The next piece was called “Swing That Thing.” This piece was a fun callback to styles of early swing jazz and was markedly faster than the first piece the group played. This piece was fun to listen to and probably would have been even more fun to dance to.
The fourth piece, “The Mountain and the Sky” felt more like a bluesy ballad. It had a nice lilt and relaxed feel. This one in particular wasn’t my favorite but I am also a big fan of the faster pieces.
The final piece, “Just in Time,” was where the drummer really got to shine. The piece begins with the drums and then is joined by the bass and piano. The piano feels like it’s playing a stride rhythm in the beginning, before getting out of the way for the saxophone and trombone. Overall, this was a very fun piece to listen to.
I really enjoyed having the privilege of watching this performance. Barber’s virtuoisic playing on saxophone was an absolute delight. The way he swelled phrases to the cadence point and the flurry at which he could release notes was crash. Shynett was no different. He was able to play some captivating licks throughout that grabbed my attention everytime.
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