Big star sings with CSM big band

CSM big jazz bands inundated the eardrums of nearly 240 people with waves of sophisticated jazzy riff raff at this semester’s band recital.

Friends, family and peers of the band members gathered at the CSM theatre to listen to the weave of technical and entertaining forms that music professor Mike Galisatus is known to deliver.

The first band to perform was the Tuesday Night Big Band, an ensemble composed of young and old band members that presented a lively repertoire of traditional jazz songs.

“Samba Kinda Mambo,” the band’s second song, was a salty sweet tune whose buoyant high notes carried the mind lightly away while its baritone kept the feet grounded and bouncing.

As the song’s title implies, the composition by Michael Philip Mossman was a back and forth ditty of samba to mambo rhythms, all the while maintaining a Latin flavor with the presence of bongos to assist the drums.

The band followed up with songs that packed grandeur and pop. Some numbers, such as “As It Is” by Pat Metheny, had delicious bass riffs complementing the quick and engaging drumbeats that created a canvas for the saxophone and trumpet section to paint a picture of epic sounds with almost heroic bellows coming from the brass.

The band following the Tuesday Night Big Band was the Galisatus’ Monday Night Big Band, which performed a more cultivated repertoire of jazz numbers. The soft underscore of rhythm created by drummer Chris Littlefield, 22, carried the band through five songs of controlled, jazzy composition.

With more experienced musicians making up the membership of the band, the songs they performed let them show off their skills. In the song “Filthy McNasty” by Horace Silver, a player from every section of the band was allowed the opportunity to strut their abilities with a solo.

“I messed up the drum solo, but I guess no one noticed, so that’s dope,” said Littlefield.

Littlefield has been drumming in for the Monday night jazz band for two semesters. Before that, Littlefield was a drummer in three bands and various hip hop solo projects of his own.

The band performed another composition by Pat Metheny called “Afternoon,” a selection Galisatus described as a “gorgeous tune.” The song was an uplifting and mellow number that gave the audience delectable piano riffs. The band’s piano player is 14 year old Matt Wong.

“I wish I could play piano like that when I was 14,” said Galisatus. “I wish I could play piano like that now.”

The show was wrapped up by the much more experienced Monday Evening Jazz Ensemble. Most all of the members of the band are over 35 years old.

One band member is fellow CSM music instructor Tim Devine, who has an extensive background in the art of jazz music.

Devine plays the saxophone and the flute for the Monday Evening Jazz Ensemble.The band performed a slower pace of sound than the previous groups, but a more intricate sound as well.

The song “Almost Like Being In Love” by Lerner and Loewe had the band creating an atmosphere of sound.

The song’s sweet bass and xylophone melodies lulled you to a dream state that was shattered by the awakening thunder of the brass section.