Over pastries and coffee at the annual Parents’ Weekend Jazz Brunch, visiting families enjoyed the classic and contemporary pop culture pieces of the Academy Jazz Band.
The band opened the concert with “Night in Tunisia,” a classic Cuban-influenced piece by Dizzy Gillespie, featuring Tyler Devlin ’13, Aaron Finder ’13, Samantha Hagler ’16, Vincent Mocco ’13 and Vijay Rajkumar ’13 playing trumpet solos.
After Wayne King’s “Beautiful Love” filled the Smith Center with its melancholic waltz tune, the Band introduced pianist Harvey Wu ’14, bassist Amo Manuel ’14 and drummer Junius Williams ’14 to the stage.
The trio brought a more international feel to the performance with their bluesy interpretation of a traditional Chinese song, “Let Us Say Twin Oars.”
After a short intermission, the band performed more upbeat, lively pieces, placing its own spin on each song.
The Band’s calm yet rhythmic rendition of “Run for Cover” by Tom Davis and “Blues for JD and the Gang” by Mike Carubia took the afternoon in a different direction from its previously cheerful atmosphere.
The Band performed “Uppin’ Adam” by Fred Sturm, for its repertoire’s final piece.
“We played a cut-time samba by Fred Sturm called ‘Uppin’ Adam’ that had a lot of interesting harmonies and rhythms. A while ago I had played another song by [Sturm] called Chronometry, which is similar in style, so I was excited when I found out we were playing this one,” said Autumn Plumbo ’14, a pianist for the band.
“[The Band] was really great. I thought they were really tight, musically. There [was] also a lot of great use of each instrument, and I thought they did a great job of engaging the audience,” said Phillip Kudla, father of Marion Kudla ’15.