Colombian jazz harpist Edmar Castaneda added a new dimension to the Fairfield University jazz club’s performance on Thursday night at the Quick Center.
The Wein Experimental Theatre turned into a jazz club with round tables where the audience sat anticipating the sounds of the night.
Castaneda’s improvisational playing of both the traditional orchestral and Colombian harp mesmerized the audience. Castaneda, who was born in Colombia, started playing the harp at the age of 13.’ Today, he stands as a figure of great importance in the jazz world, as he uniquely adds the harp to the American art form of jazz, juxtaposing two very different cultural sounds that come to together to create beautiful music. Today, he tours regularly with his group, the Edmar Castaneda Trio.’ The audience sat in awe of Castaneda when he played.
One of the greatest moments of the night was when Castaneda and Torff performed a duet that Castaneda had arranged.’ Castaneda played the Colombian harp, mixing a style of traditional legato orchestral harp playing with very innovative, almost jumpy staccato melodies, which he created by plucking the strings.’
In the style of jazz, Castaneda and the other players often improvised and took many solos, highlighting every player in the band at least once.’
‘ Nicholas Lombardi ’10, the student leader of the ensemble, performed the night’s first solo on his alto sax, and also arranged a the second song performed called ‘Mo’ Better Blues’ written by Branford Marsalis.
‘ ‘I was very excited about performing my arrangement,’ said Lombardi. I spent’ a lot of time on it, hoping that it would appeal to everyone who came to see us, so I felt proud that it was on the program.’
But that wasn’t the only student work performed. Nate Whittaker ’10, who played piano on his arrangement ‘Slow Me Down.’
Although the group is smaller in numbers in comparison to last year, the audience was blown away by their loud and grabbing sound on various different tunes.’
Two songs of the night were arranged by director Brian Torff, who joined the group on his bass in these numbers.
The night ended with a old favorite ‘Mr. PC’ by the jazz great, John Coltrane.’
‘I thought both performances went very well,’ said Lombardi. ‘We played together well and there was a very good turnout to see us perform.’
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