The Daily Campus

Issue date: 1/26/07 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Joshua Litwin Students watch a student ensemble perform in Lu's cafe, located in the Family Studies Building, on a wintry Thursday night.

When you really think about it, and really listen to it, and really watch it, it becomes clear that the UConn jazz ensemble's shows are one of the best values in on-campus entertainment. Sagaciously strutting through jazz standards and classics with a refined gait, this student group demonstrates musicianship on levels usually left to the professionals.

Thursday night saw this semester's second installation of "Jazz Night" at Lu's Cafe in the Family Studies Building, with an incarnation of the ensemble well worth the $3 charged at the door.

At the mark of 9 p.m., the band scrupulously initiated its first song, while students as well as additional band members began filtering in. By the second song, keyboardist and ensemble veteran Dan Campoliuta had set up his instrument and was letting loose. And with that, the quartet conveyed a sensuous stream of jazz consciousness to the crowd comprised equally of engrossed spectators and those who were half-listening, engaged in conversation.

Mike Knox, of "Great Pick" esteem, grooved to the pulses that reverberated through the strings of his bass throughout the performance, his notes coaxed by wary fingers. Juxtaposing high and low notes in a solo midway through the second song, Knox gave an expressive touch to the song that his subdued bassline previously supported.

In his polo shirt and backwards cap, Knox's amusingly puerile remarks to the crowd between the ensemble's expertly improvised playing gave the perfomance a paradoxical quality. He noted the first half of the show had a "bonus bonist," referring to the presence of Chris Espy, an impermanent member of the ensemble on the trombone. Espy cooly relayed the tasteful melody of the third number, Lee Morgan's "Ceora."

By the fourth song, the cafe was packed. Listeners embraced Matt Santaceroce's cunning drum fills which made way for the other instrumentalist's tight pauses. Santaceroce, the only non-music major of the bunch sat stolid on his stool through the night as he manipulated the rhythm with lightly-tapped snare hits.

Campoliuta clinched the final song of the first set with a sinister-sounding hook. Returning from the short break, the quartet was now a quintet as Chris Espy's trombone was replaced with Kyle Beecher and Tom Wise on Trumpet and Saxaphone, respectively.

Continued...

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