On Monday Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. SOhO hosted a Monday Madness event. Monday Madness is an event that happens every month at SOhO hosted by City College Jazz Band Director Andrew Martinez. 

Blue, purple and orange lighting filled up the room, shining on the Big Band Jazz Orchestra as they set up and got ready to perform. Lined up from top to bottom, audience members from the Santa Barbara community sat patiently and waited for the performance to start. The band opened up with a beautiful performance from the amazing trumpet players, alongside the drummer and pianist. 

The entire concert was two hours long with a 20 minute break between. 

Being my first time at a jazz concert, I wasn’t really sure what I was to expect, but I was incredibly blown away by the show.

The band passionately performed each song, filling the room with incredible sounds and putting smiles on everybody’s faces. As I gazed around the room, I noticed the audience seemed incredibly excited for each performance, and knowing the names of each song and the origins, while clapping with joy when their favorite song cover was played. I thought back to myself wondering whether I remember any of these songs, or if I recalled listening to these songs. 

The performance was amazing, but I do wish they had a pamphlet for each song played, which would have helped me to follow along. Being at this show was a little step out of my comfort zone, but I’m very grateful to experience something new and open up my horizons.

Jazz is a genre of music that I’m slowly growing to understand. That being said, overall, I had a wonderful time being at the performance and it was nice to see all the hard work and time put into the production to create this event, but I will say it wasn’t my cup of tea, maybe because I did not recognize many of the songs played, as well as any artists mentioned. 

However, it was nice to see the audience engaged with the performance and knowing each song that was performed. As I reflect on this memory, I would like to understand more and slowly grow into it, but for now I would say it’s something that I have to continue researching to understand. It’s a little out of my comfort zone within music, but I would recommend this performance to anybody who loves jazz as it was incredible, but just a little different than my usual taste. 

I personally feel the performance should be a little shorter, and with a shorter break so that we get to sit through and enjoy the whole performance without disturbance.

More information about the event and more to come can be found on their website. The price for entry is $15 in cash for general admission. The doors open at 6 p.m and the concerts begin at 7 p.m.