City College’s jazz ensemble hosted its annual Big Band Blowout at The Garvin Theatre on Nov.18. This year’s event was held in memory of one of the former members and longtime friend of director Andrew Martinez, Carlos Angel Maya.
The Good Times Big Band, directed by Eric Heidner, opened the night with their rendition of “Rompin at the Reno”. The band incorporated solos and duets, showcasing individual band members’ talents.
They ended their performance with “My Favorite Thing”, an arrangement widely known from the movie “The Sound of Music”. While many may recognize the song from Julie Andrews’ version, many jazz musicians associate it with John Coltrane’s rendition.
The second act of the night was the Lunch Break Big Band, directed by Andrew Martinez. With a smooth transition, the band got straight into an energetic performance of “Whirly Bird”.
The band’s emphatic performance rang through the theater. Featuring energetic solos from saxophonists Liam Coggon, and Mark Maynard.
“I want to dedicate this performance tonight, to someone very important to this band,” Martinez said. “Carlos Angel Maya [who] was a lifelong Dodgers fan, and so this next one’s for him.”
The second song they performed was “Hickory and Twine”, a song closely associated with baseball, dedicated to Maya’s love for it. The song featured a steady guitar section by Orlando Geyer Lamb and a trombone solo by Lucas Carrara.
Throughout the night Martinez would talk about Maya, his late friend and bandmate, who he met back in 1990. He reminisced about Maya’s love for music, and his attitude that was up for anything.
“He was gregarious, he loved playing music and always had a smile on his face,” Martinez said. “We met in 1990 at Dos Pueblos, he had the same smile that he carried throughout [his life].”
Their third song “Skylark” was dedicated to Julio Longcob, who has been a band member for several years as a saxophonist. As this was his last performance with the Lunch Break Big Band, Longcob performed a solo that grasped the audience’s attention.
The final performance of the night was the Monday Madness Big Band, also directed by Andrew Martinez.
The band consists of mostly professional musicians in and out of the City College who reside in Santa Barbara.
“We have an amazing drummer, Dick Weller, who was a professor at CSUN, and now retired here. So we’re lucky that he’s decided to retire here and wants to play with us,” Martinez said.
The first song they performed was originally a song by John Coltrane called “Moment’s Notice”, but the band played a rendition of an arrangement by Alan Baylock. Shortly after the song was “Quintessence” by Quincy Jones.
“Quintessence, [represents] the highest quality, the pinnacle of outstanding character, and that exactly describes Carlos. So, we’re gonna dedicate this song to him,” Martinez said.
For the final performance of the night, the band performed “High Altotude”. A play on words for the fast-paced duet of two saxophones in the song performed by John Sauldo and Paul Browne.
City College’s Big Band Jazz ensembles perform again at 7 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the SOhO Restaurant & Music Club.
