Concert Report #3
The concert Danny Janklow “Elevation” Quintet was on May 13 2016, in the Edye Second Space at the Santa Monica College Arts Center. The band leader, Alto sax and alto flute player was Danny Janklow. The drummer was Dan Schnelle. Vibraphone player was Nick Mancini. Double bass and electric bass player was Benjamin Shepherd. The piano player was Michael Ragonese. The vocalist was Michael Mayo. The sound in the venue is great. The sound of different instruments melt together. Comparing to the videos Danny Janklow posted on YouTube, in which the sound of each instrument is clear and easy to distinguish, in the venue, they used combination of instrument to create novel sound that I have never heard before. For example, it was genius to use both vibraphone and piano to create harmony, which makes the harmony section’s volume up and down. They also made nice sound by playing bass, piano, and vibraphone together. Musicians were so passionate and emotional, which is different from last two concert.
The music titles were Roastmaster, Philafornia, Calor Del Momento, Hidden Treasure, Bad Reception 2.0, Creep, Gemini Vibe, Lobbai, and Serene State of Love.
The second piece was Philafornia. The keyboard player Michael Ragonese came into the venue first. He sat in front of the keyboard and started to improvise. A few minutes later, other musicians came in. Michael Ragonese didn’t stop playing. The band leader Danny Janklow just nodded his head towards Michael Ragonese and they started their first music Roastmaster. It was so incredible that Michael Ragonese was not distracted by others while improvising. At the beginning, I thought the sound of alto sax was strange but beautiful. It seems that Danny Janklow was producing two pitches at a time. Then I realized that Michael Mayo was singing along with Danny Janklow. I did not know a vocalist and an instrument player can make such beautiful harmony. The following Nick Mancini’s solo was great. Vibraphone sounded nice with chords produced by piano. At the end, there was a long repetition of a same melody. However, it was not boring, because of Dan Schnelle’s ‘solo’. It was creative to use the same melody to company percussion solo. It made people focus on Dan Schnelle and made the solo musical.
The Third piece was Calor Del Momento. At the beginning, Michael Mayo and Danny Janklow created another beautiful sound using human voice and alto flute. Then it came the call and response between piano and vibraphone. It was hard to tell the difference between the sound of piano and vibraphone at the beginning. Two melody gradually went on top of each other. It was like the discussion between two people get heated. Two melodies were so harmonic. I did not notice any collision between two instruments. Musicians were so talented that their improvised melodies seemed to be well written in advance. The most surprising part was the call and response between alto sax and vocal. This is the first time for me to see live scat singing. Michael Mayo’s voice was like well-tuned piano. Every pitch lies on the perfect spot. I never thought it was possible to make heated call and response between human voice and alto sax. Then, all the musicians played together. Comparing to Philafornia, Calor Del Momento had more call and response, improvised melody. They used different combinations of instruments and human voice to create different sound.
The sixth piece was creep. Benjamin Shepherd used electric bass to create harmony for the sax’s melody. It was impressive that Benjamin Shepherd could make the harmony more emotional than the harmony a piano could have made. Comparing to Philafornia and Calor Del Momento, creep was quiet at the beginning, and more emotional. The music is called Creep, but the sound was consonant. Then, piano and percussions came in. The music got more and more emotional. Danny Janklow used loud and broken sound of alto sax to describe his struggle at his early age as a musician. He was fighting, failing, struggling, and crying. At the end, he was exhausted and he succeed. His music really touched my heart. It made me cringe. It encouraged me to follow my dream.
Musicians were so talented. I wanted to create music like them. Their talents made me fear for music. Why our society pay these talented musicians so little comparing to pop stars? What happens if a musician does not have talent like them? People should come up a better solution to pay musicians.
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