The University of Hawai’i Jazz Ensemble has been under the direction of Mike Lewis since 2017 and can be seen performing around Honolulu on a regular basis. The flagship jazz group at UH uses a traditional big band orchestration to explore jazz standards both classic and contemporary. They host a performance each semester at the music department – this November, I was lucky enough to catch their outdoor concert at the Barbara Smith Amphitheater. The performance started with an excellent rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Such Sweet Thunder” featuring Mike Matrasko on the flugelhorn and trombone player Ashanna Guyton. “Such Sweet Thunder” was a great opener – a classic big band song that engaged the audience and had that characteristic Ellington-esque ragtime feel.

KTUH’s very own DJ, Smee Wong, was a featured vocalist in Michael Bublé’s version of “Moondance” by Van Morrison. No stranger to improvisation, Wong is a seasoned jazz singer and impressed the audience with some excellent scat singing at the end. In Miles Collins’ “Aurelia”, trumpet player Mike Matrasko brought this ballad to life with a beautiful trumpet solo. The band also performed a diverse and interesting repertoire of songs characteristic of the heydey of big bands including Zanwinal’s “Birdland”, Nina Simone’s version of “Feeling Good”, and Vernon Duke’s “April in Paris”. One song, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” stood out from this selection of big band classics as a beautiful jazz ensemble arrangment of a traditional spiritual.

A fun and educational exercise that Lewis added to the performance, called “Blues on the Spot” where, in 12-bar blues form, members of each section of the band improvied a solo based on the phrase from the lead player. The band ended with Count Basie’s arrangement of “April in Paris” and, just like Basie, had the audience chime in with “one more time” and then “one more once.” Many UH music groups host on-campus performances and I have found that I can expose myself to a diverse selection of music this way. Unlike some other groups, the jazz ensemble did not perform any of their own arrangments or compositions which I would love to see in future performances. Seeing this group was a great way to spend the evening and forget some of the daily troubles of life to focus on optimism – as Ken Burns said, “I think that jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a kind of look into our redemptive future possibilities.”

Peace & Aloha.

Bjarne