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Show ill 11 ti :i H If i H ! tit 0 if ' it II 1 if Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra Takes Music to Another Level written by Iuciano TTiarzuIIi vargas photos by dave tada , Yin -- s -- 1 or most of us, the word jazz denotes something old, complicated and inaccessible especially to those who listen to pop music and can't go more than three and a half minutes without a catchy hook or phrase to hold our dwindling attention. With their debut performance last Thursday night, the memSalt Lake Alternative Jazz bers of the Orchestra (S.L.A.J.O.) dispelled the myth of jazz as only art music by filling the Urban Lounge with fresh compositions, blazing a trail into uncharted territory. Dave Chisholm plays trumpet for the orchestra and described the inception of the group: "I was driving home from a lesson I had with Tully, my teacher, and I just thought, 'hey there's a bunch of players up at the University of Utah who are really good players.'" Chisholm's vision involved a lot of brass players for a really smokin' rhythm section, so he figured, "might as well use it. Once I told one of the players, Marco Blackmore, about it he kept buggin' me about it every day of class to write music for it. "Did you write anything for S.L.A.J.O.? Did you write anything for S.L.A.J.O.?'" Chisholm said. Over the winter break, with time away from classes, Chisholm was able to write the arrangements for most of his four original compositions as well as a new arrangement of John Coltrane's "Blue Train" and nine inch nails' Trent Reznor's "The Day the World Went Away." "Maybe just myself I'm kind of sick and tired of jazz. So we just listen to stuff that's good music that's not like part of the jazz idiom," Chisholm said of the decision to Write a jazz arrangement for a nine inch nails tune. In addition to Chisholm's arrangements, Willis Clow arranged four songs and Will Lovell arranged three. The majority of players are currently or were at some time part of the U's jazz program. They include Jim Follet and Dave Chisholm on trumpet and Joe Chisholm and Ryan Shepard on trombone. Matt Moor plays tuba and Mike Forbes plays tenor sax. The band's wind players are Adam Leishman on tenor sax, flute and bass clarinet; Andrew Kuhnhausen on alto sax, soprano sax and clarinet; and Marco Blackmore on alto and baritone sax. Willis Clow plays electric guitar, Will Lovell mans the double bass and Steve Lyman keeps time multi-instrument- ' . ... J?6 . February y At-- . 27, 2003 :; - miJi.-i,..- RED Magazine . -j the drumkit. "The main reason I wanted to write for this group and also the tunes I've written for the U Big Band is that I'm sick and tired on of Big Band music," Chisholm said. Chisholm, Clow and Lovell all agree that the majority of Big Band music in the popular sense is cheesy, unemotional and dated. "We are trying to play music that's in the now," said Chisholm. "We want people to open their eyes and realize that, this music, you can do great things with it and anyone can get into it, not just fuckin' jazz musi- cians." music Lovell went on to say that is very repertory and often big bands play charts that were written 20 to 60 years ago. "We're not playing stock charts, we're playing our charts," Lovell said. The three composersarrangers agree that the attitude in this group is more relaxed and more inclined to comment and input than in the U big band because no one is afraid of getting a bad grade. Plus it helps big-ban- d that they all know each other and get along. While individual members practice their respective instruments anywhere from two to five hours a day, the band has been holding rehearsals on a weekly basis since the beginning of the new year. From the unity and near flawless performance in their live show, one would never guess that this orchestra has only practiced together for a little more than a month and half. the show The first composition set the tone for the night, Dave Chisholm's original composition and arrangement "Naked" began with a real mellow bass line accompanied by the drum kit. The horns entered right on time and then Chisholm began his trumpet solo. A little ways into it, Clow and Chisholm began some call and response with Clow playing chords. This heightened the intensity of the music and paved the way for dynamic movements. In every sense, the players filled their parts with emotion. One of Chisholm's other originals, "Contract Killer," began as a mellow ballad and soon required participation on the part see page r8 ..... PC30R CC |