I'm sure that in 40 years I will have wonderful memories of my youth. One of these will definitely be the jazz concert I attended that Thursday evening in Fez, located at 380 Lafayette St, right under the Time Café. That like every Thursday evening, the center of attention was the famous "Mingus Big Band", whose name keeps alive a great, and somewhat controversial, jazz composer, Charles Mingus. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay When I got there, the musicians were rehearsing and talking about the performance. Everyone played with their own instruments, making sure they didn't cause any problems during the "dreaded" live act. The band consisted of 12 artists who seemed to struggle to fit into that small platform. The wind instruments were positioned at the front of the band, consisting of: a bassoon, a flute, a trumpet, a tenor saxophone, an alto saxophone and even a soprano saxophone. Behind them, a French horn, a trombone and a bass saxophone. A cymbal drum kit was the only percussion instrument played in the band. The piano represented the keyboard family while the double bass and electric guitar represented the stringed instruments. The band started with a ballad called "Noon night". The protagonist of this piece was the French horn which played a solo. The bass and trombone followed the solo in the background. The second piece, called "Eclipse", featured electric guitar and bassoon. They both performed the same melody in their solos. In the first solo the melody was sweet and slow while in the second it became faster and more joyful. This piece of music seemed to speed up as time went on. I still remember the ecstatic and cheering crowd when the piece ended. The third piece, titled “Haitian Struggle,” was more dramatic than the others. It resembled a chaotic, brawl-like state of mind, as the name suggests. The three pieces are different in many respects, but they all seem to bear the composer's signature. They are all modern jazz, which is characterized by being dissonant. The yardage in all pieces varies. "Noon night" was a ballad, slow and sometimes even melancholic. The tone color was not as rich as the other two pieces. Multiple wind instruments were used in this piece. “Eclipse,” started slowly and then moved to a very fast pace. In this piece most of the instruments actively participated. The "Haitian fight" was introduced by the bass, which gradually moved to a dance beat. The rest of the instruments joined in, trying to imitate a disorganized struggle. The timbral color in all pieces was extremely rich, the band sounded homophonic despite the improvisation. They needed a band leader who would sometimes lead the rest. In each piece the relationship between the prepared and improvised components was known. In all the pieces the artists added embellishments and they all matched together in a magical way. During "Haitian Fight" the trombonist even started yelling "Oh yeah", which then became part of the audience. In the solos each member of the band added his personal touch; sometimes the instruments even duplicated the voices. It was extremely superb, since the group had homophony and the timing was right. Soloists had more freedom in performance. They become the center of attention by making the sound of their instrument more intense. The rest of the music becomes the backdrop against which they develop. Each instrument in the solo had its own magical moment. During solos, members who were not playing listen and enjoy someone else's solos, clap and sometimes even decide to.