The Berklee World Jazz Nonet (2010-06 USA-DC Concert-Jazz)

The Berklee World Jazz Nonet

Aesthetic: 4
Technical: 3
Structure: 2
Emotional: 3

Overall: 4

This was some kind of youngin Berklee jazz supergroup. Nine Berklee students from all over the world (Canada, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Palestine, Puerto Rico, and USA) had the pleasure of kicking off the D.C. Jazz Festival. The Saxophonist was the youngest ever to be named downBeat's "rising star alto saxophonist". Outside of music, the singer worked on Bolt, Shrek 3, and some others.

Anyways, on to the performance. First off, the bad. The Millennium Stage is just in the halls of the Kennedy Center, with a little stage facing a gigantic hallway. The sound was, well, better than I thought it would be, but still not that great. There was a lot of lagged reverb which hurt the clarity, and as always, parts of the bass were too high in the mix. This posed a problem during many of the complex jazzy passages. Also, I probably always think this, but the piano was too low in the mix! The second thing was that these kids were young and a little nervous, particularly the vocalist. This included her awkward semi-dancing during the instrumental parts.

However, a couple songs in, they got real relaxed and let themselves groove. They let out some groovy jamming and hit the audience with some sweet sax and guitar solos. Oh and the piano and qanun playing duets was heavenly. I absolutely adored that middle-eastern instrument. And the way they played off each other and in sync was awesome!

One of their songs was a slower number. Normally I am not the biggest fan of slower jazz, but it progressed really well. The vocalist was warmed up and started some powerful singing. She was much more comfortable, you could see it as she moved around stage. She also had some nice duets and exchanges with the sax player. Oh and boy was the sax player good. In this number, her sound was so soulful. Following this, the song progressed to some nice slower groves with other instruments joining in. They really started putting the feel into it.

Although some sections got lost in the echoes and bad mixing, I was overall quite impressed with the group.