Jazz Live Performance Review Live Performance Review:

Jazz Live Performance Review

Live Performance Review: Roy Haynes and the Fountain of Youth Band

Summer festivals always fill the New York air with some pretty amazing music. This year's Charlie Parker music festival was definitely no exception. Some pretty big names showed up to make the festival one to remember, including the great Roy Haynes and his Fountain of Youth Band, which came to pay tribute to the bop and bebop of the Bird's era.

This year's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival signified the event's 20th anniversary, and so the line up was definitely filled with some serious all stars. The entire festival spanned several days, and included stops in both Harlem and the East Side. The particular event I attended was the concert held on August 25, 2012 at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, New York. The concert was a free event in Harlem, put on by the City Parks Foundation in honor of a jazz legend and in an attempt to keep good jazz alive in the streets of New York City (City Parks Foundation 2012). There were several big names playing, but one of the more memorable performances was that of Roy Hanes and his Fountain of Youth Band. The band currently tours around the country and recently played at the Lincoln Center, also here in New York. On that particular occasion, Roy Haynes, the leader of the band that shares his name, was on the drums. Jaleel Shaw presented a memorable performance on the saxophone. Martin Bejerano was on the piano, and David Wong really provided a great foundation for the set on the stand up bass.

The performance that awesome summer day was really centered on presenting the beauty of improvisations and the complex talents of the various soloists paying their respect to a major jazz legend. You could tell everyone in the crowd was definitely enjoying the sort of bop that was being presented in respect of the great jazz legend Charlie "Bird" Parker. According to outside research, "Charlie Parker was one of the most influential improvising soloists in jazz, and a central figure in the development of bop in the 1940s," (Oxford University press 2012). In his honor, there was much bop beating through the speakers. The emphasis of the performance itself was also really based on highlighting the solos and the individual of the talents of the musicians themselves. In respect for one of jazz music's greatest improvisers, the solo improvisations were really the main focus of the performance. For example, bassist David Wong played a clear walking base to support the saxophone during Jaleel Shaw's solo improvisations, with the drums acting as a counter and providing breaks in the melody. Then the rest of the orchestra was once again brought back into the song until the harmony flowed into the next improvisation session. This was repeated throughout the performance, with each of the artists having several different blocks to pay homage to the great Charlie Parker. Haynes played a more active role in keeping the tempo during Martin Bejerano's solo piano improvisation. This showed not only the flexibility and fluidity of the band's style, but also the respect for several of the genres of bop that Charlie Parker was so influential in creating.

Overall, the entire performance was incredibly impressive. I was very surprised at the range that saxophonist Jaleel Shaw showed throughout the set. He really had some range on the saxophone, and could increase or decrease the tempo without breaking up the harmony the rest of the band had already established in the course of the set. Having not heard of him previously, I was definitely pleasantly surprised.