Jazz artists amaze crowd at Irvine

Scat singing, the sax, and two silver stars of jazz improv piano will please any crowd, any time. And a crowd of 500 people was more than pleased when jazz masters Ellis Marsalis, Marcus Roberts and special guest Owen Brown grooved Irvine Auditorium with over two hours of pure jazz. Brown and his "not just jazz Band" kicked off the performance with a unique blend of saxophone, keyboards, bass, drums and jazz violin. Brown brought his incredible talent for scat singing into the spotlight in the second number and got a great response from the audience. Robert Landham showed equal versatility on the sax, with Bill Meeks on keyboards, Fahir Kendall on bass and Richard Waller on drums keeping up the beat and the excitement throughout the 45 minute set. After a short intermission, the evening's featured performers, Ellis Marsalis and Marcus Roberts, took to their Steinways and dazzled the audience with an unbelievable performance. After being received enthusiastically by the crowd, Marsalis said that it was "wonderful to be here in the City of Brotherly Love". "These days, being from Louisiana, it's great to be anywhere . . . else," Marsalis added, eliciting further applause from the audience. The duo played numbers ranging from "The Newness of You," a ballad with flourishes and improv from both artists, to that old standard, "Lover," a piece with wild piano riffs which, Marsalis claimed, "we do to keep ourselves in shape". The awesome interplay between the two artists roused an enthusiastic response from the crowd, as they continued with unbelievable energy for 90 minutes straight. Marsalis and Roberts tried to close with a number by John Coltrane, but the standing ovation of the audience brought them back for an encore. Members of SPEC's organizing committee for the jazz festival said they were very happy with the performance of the two jazz masters. "I'm kind of speechless, actually," said concert co-chairperson and College Junior Rick Greenberg. "It was absolutely amazing, I'm just in awe." "Ellis and Marcus were in such sync with each other, with just their pianos and nothing else. They just astounded the crowd with their energy," said Nancy Polutan, another of the concert's co-organizers. The audience left the performance thrilled. "This is the third time that I've seen Marcus, and the first time I've seen the father of Wynton Marsalis," said Engineering sophomore Malaney Hill. "I was very impressed by their artistic creativity, as well as Owen Brown's. It was great of SPEC to bring them here." "I've never been to a jazz concert before, and it was an incredible first experience," College junior Andy Baker said.