Jazz Forum welcomes a Brazilian jazz band

Is there any better way to spend class time other than listening to live music? On April 19, the Jazz Forum held an open event in which students were welcomed to sit in and listen to live Brazilian jazz. The event was hosted in Schroeder Hall where the Jazz Forum class is taught. It was free to attend and didn’t require a ticket to attend. The musicians playing were Edu Ribero on the drums, Noah Garabedian on the bass, and Vinicius Gomes on the guitar who would be playing Brazilian Jazz. The event officially began at 1 p.m. and ended a little after 2 p.m.

Upon entering the classroom where the event took place you could see a crowd of around 40 seated students. Each student had a chair to sit in which was arranged in a half circle surrounding the three performers. The event officially began with each musician introducing themselves and giving some information about themselves as well as thanking everyone who made it out. Edu Ribero and Vinicius Gomes are from Brazil and on tour in America. After those interesting facts about the performers, they started playing. Their first song was a smooth soulful piece that had great guitar sections from Gomes which were elevated by Garabedian’s bass and fun drumming from Ribero. As they played, the head bobbing from students clearly enjoying the music seemed to be contagious and soon most of the room seemed to be doing it.

The students that were able to attend this performance mentioned how fun it was to hear this unique type of music. David Curran, a second-year biology major said, “I haven’t really heard anything like it before I’m not into jazz so this is my first time hearing it.” In between songs Ribero, Gomes, and Garabedian would teach the audience about the unique rhythm that Brazilian Jazz can have by having everyone in the audience clap along with them. Some like Aaron Daniels, a first-year business major, expressed how much he enjoyed it, “My favorite part of the whole thing was when we all clapped along and got to see how complex the rhythm of those songs were.”

Jazz Forum is a class that all jazz studies majors must attend so at times it could be hard for students from other majors to understand what was being talked about. Leah Nelson, a second-year business major said, “I couldn’t understand all the details they were talking about but I still really enjoyed the songs they got to play for us.” Luckily the musicians did ask if everyone was a music major and tried to make concepts more understandable to those in attendance that were not familiar with the intricacies of music composition. Although this was not an official concert it would be great to hear these great musicians play in the Green Music Center where more students would be able to experience an amazing performance.