On Monday, Dec. 1, the Delta College jazz bands showcased talent and pieces studied throughout the semester to an audience in the Warren Atherton Auditorium.
Two separate jazz ensembles performed, led by band directors Mike Rocha and Brian Kendrick, with Rocha’s jazz ensemble initiating the concert.
As soon as Rocha’s ensemble settled on stage, the group started playing the first of four songs, “The Chicken.”
The ensemble then followed with “Memories of You,” “Autumn in Ganymade” and “Count Bubba.”
For “Autumn in Ganymede,” Rocha made sure to give Olivia Nickols special props since she made an arrangement for this piece.
“To kind of paint a better picture of what that means, one it’s a lot of work, and two it’s not simple work,” said Rocha. “Dealing with organized sounds, being able to spell chords and write orchestrations for different instruments, so we like to feature those students who take on such tasks.”
After Rocha’s jazz ensembles finished, Kendrick’s jazz ensemble began with “500 Miles High.”
The group performed a total of five songs, with the rest of them being “Evil Ways,” “In Walked Bud,” “I Remember Clifford” and “Bodysnatchers.”
Kendrick and his ensemble dedicated the performance of “I Remember Clifford” to the victims of the Nov. 29 shooting that happened in North Stockton.
“I feel like we need to take a moment to remember the folks who were killed in this shooting over the weekend. I know when it happens we were horrified, and continue to be, and we just want to lift up their families, so we’re going to play this tune in remembrance of them,” said Kendrick.
Angel Gomez, a trombone player in Kendrick’s jazz ensemble, shared his experiences preparing for the concert with other band members.
“As far as the ensemble goes we worked a lot on staying together in time, keeping together, blending our sound, have a nice balance between everyone,” said Gomez. “I really loved learning how much we can accomplish as a group, you know we only meet twice a week and we managed to put this show together.”
The concert ended with Kendrick thanking the audience for attending and providing some last words for members of both ensembles.
“This represents a lot of work by the students throughout the semester, a lot of growth and I’m super proud of them,” said Kendrick.”Everyday they show up to work hard and it always feels so good to see them grow.”
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