The Shenanigans
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| Vic,Fiqa,Betty,Zaifi,prof. Razif,Nasrul,Hafiz |
First of all I would like to introduce The Shenanigans members, you can see the picture above. The Shenanigans is a small group of the first year student and they're representative of USMJAZZBAND. We are free style musician and wanted to try different style of jazz.
Starting the jazz band is definitely an exciting experience in our life,
"I can't stop this music travelling round with me
wherever I go, it's playing for you"
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| we never stop getting whirl |
The Shenanigans hit all the right
notes!!
On March 14, 2013, The Shenanigans’ Jazz Ensemble had their first
concert of the second semester with special guest guitarist, Helsheila Julis at
Anjung Semarak. The Shenanigans collectively performed seven pieces during
the concert. “My Girl ”, “Kiss Me” and “ Valerie"
were three stylistically different pieces that allowed the audience to
experience the various sounds of jazz music.
Jazz music, like all music, tells us a story - and here are some of my reviews
of this jazz performance.
“My Girl”, originally by
The Temptations,was sung by our vocalist, Nasrul. It is an upbeat jazz standard
made famous by The Temptations. In the
instrumental version of this song, a Latin-inspired consonance set a romantic
mood at the beginning of this song. A
keyboard and guitar then alternately played the melody of the song - as though
they were step-dancing, or like two lovers flying to the moon.
"Somebody That I Used To Know" is a well-known piece
originally performed by Gotye. As the performance heated up, the atmosphere
changed as saxophonists Zaifi Mokhtar and Shafiqah Shujairi started to play the
melody line, while the keyboard and Cajon players within the ensemble played
the accompaniment. The rhythm, which started off steady, seemed
to get faster and faster - just like quickening heartbeats – towards the climax
of the song. It was also at this point
that the dynamics of the song were progressively synchronized until all
instruments met at the top with a bang and then resolved the dynamics again to
a moderate level until the song ended.
“Use Somebody”, is a song by the American alternative rock group Kings of Leon. It was
sung by our vocalist, Nasrul. The
texture of this piece remained the same throughout and the ‘’1,2,3‘’ pattern
was also used very noticeably throughout the piece as well. The saxophone, congas and the guitar took
turns playing the melody and did so through this performance in the form of
solos. The dynamics in this song started
soft and then increased to a moderate level before a ‘’decrescendo’’ to a
softer level once again. The ensemble did a fabulous job of keeping up with the
rhythm of the song.
“She's The One”,
originally written by Wallinger, was sung by our vocalist Anis Azman and the
musicians played in a swing style and also played romantic melodies. This piece began by having very dissonant
tones within the harmony with the introduction of a keyboard, saxophone, conga,
cabasa and tambourine. The song then
changed into a more consonant harmony, which remained throughout the rest of
the song. The melody of this song was bright and happy in some places within
the song, and cool and relaxing in other parts as the tempo changed. There were
many dynamics used within this song. The
song began with a crescendo from very soft to very loud and then remained in
this pattern until the end when the pattern was reversed. Anis Azman’s voice
made an amazing combination with the other instruments to make a special jazz
performance.
“Kiss Me”, originally by Sixpence None The Richer, as well as Amy Wine house’s "Valerie"were also performed by our vocalist, Anis Azman.
For me, these songs depict the passion of romance since the first notes were
played. The songs were passionate and sexy.I find listening to these songs a
worthwhile experience and it was a fantastic beginning to the jazz concert, in the
sense that the songs were familiar to the audience. Besides that, these songs
create a very lively feeling and made me appreciate the beauty of real jazz.
Starting with slow intros and slow beats, these songs changed into reggae beats,
making members of the audience curious at first - but excited nevertheless.
At the end of the performance, our
guest guitarist, Helsheila Julis really “screwed
up madly” by playing solo through her original, "Live Away", as well as covers
of "Payphone” and “Wings". Her finger picking style on acoustic guitar coupled with Cain’s
beats on the cajon creates a cool syncopated,groovy effect while the beats on the cajon
really made the audience move to them.I found
listening to these songs a worthwhile experience and it was a fantastic ending
to the jazz performance – as they were also familiar to the audience.
The
Shenanigans’ performance at Anjung Semarak was an enjoyable one, filled with
great pieces of music. As I sit back, I reflect on what
menial words I would use to describe this past performance- an extraordinary
experience that I had with The Shenanigans.
I wondered whether I should use these words,“an experience extremely
extraordinary and out of this world” to describe it because this experience changed
me and my perception of what it truly meant to see the world. I remembered how
I was before, having a narrow tunnel vision on how I perceived the world. I'm not going to pretend that I loved every
minute of it, but I believed that sometimes musical expeditions like these
really inspire me to find out what is happening in the world around us. The
Shenanigans did an awesome job and I would like to thank everyone for their
support.
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