Aggie Radio Album Review

These cats are cooking!

What are these cats cooking, you may ask? Solos and renditions of jazz tunes are what! 

The USU Jazz Jams are in full swing again this year, starting off with the first one hosted on Sept. 30. 

I was simply blown away by the amount of talent and energy brought forward by the students and staff in attendance that night. The TSC Hub was quite literally buzzing between sets.

To witness a true test of one’s skill and talent is something I will always applaud. As someone who grew up in the performing arts, I have a deep admiration for any form of live performance. A performance-based skill takes months to perfect and challenges the artist every day. I truly am in awe when I witness these skills firsthand.  It takes a real act of courage and self-confidence to put yourself in such a vulnerable space. 

The night featured solos from at least 10 different students, each with their own styles and tones. Some of the songs played were “There Will Never Be Another You” by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, “Anthropology” by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, to name a few. 

I am very new to the world of jazz and have never really attended any live jazz performances. I think that the level of collaboration given by each band member was truly beautiful, and that is something unique about the jazz genre. This was a great introduction to some of the great hits and some of the rough and rugged parameters of the genre.

Notes and tunes are meant to sound good, obviously, but the skill and quality also comes in how each member responds to their own playing. Whether they flub a note or are just behind the time, each person is still given their space, and they get to choose their “voice”.

One attendee and player of the night was Corbin Ellis, a junior in the Guitar Performance program at USU. Ellis stated, “It’s not sitting in a class and learning about chords and stuff, it’s showing up, trying to do your best and trying to live inside the music.” Ellis has been attending these events for two years and is planning to attend even more in the future.

As the night carried on, some students displayed their talents across multiple instruments, Skyler Harris being one, for example, playing the saxophone and trombone that night. The musical flexibility of each participant is something I continue to fawn over. The sheer and raw talent and skill within that room was simply astounding.

Live performances and live collaborations are something I find beautifully human and real. It is a true joy and with them through their messed-up notes or crystal-clear melodies.

— Cal Talbot

Devon Gilfillian and the Power of Live Performance

If there’s anything that can validate the power of a performance, it’s when you can clearly see that those performing genuinely love what they’re doing. This was more evident than ever when Devon Gilfillian took the stage at the State Room in Salt Lake City on Oct. 3.

The State Room is a smaller venue with floor space for standing and some seats in the back set up like a movie theatre. This more intimate space worked perfectly for what followed. 

At 8 p.m., Jon Muq took the stage to open. His entire set was just him and his guitar. 

What you should know about Jon Muq is that his story is that of a Hollywood success story, something you only hear in movies. Between songs, he took time to share stories about the song he had just performed or was about to perform.
Jon Muq is from Uganda. He grew up interested in music, and it wasn’t until he borrowed his friend’s guitar that he learned to play and sing songs in English before he even knew how to speak it. After a video of him playing on the streets of Uganda was uploaded to Facebook, a luxury cruise liner contacted him and asked him to play on the cruise.

After Muq’s time on the cruise, he came over to the States instead of returning home to Uganda. Muq specifically found himself in Austin, Texas (I happened to have been wearing my Austin hat to the concert that night, so shoutout to my hometown). You couldn’t help but fall in love with him and his music. Not a single eye was drawn anywhere else during his opening act.

About 15 minutes after Jon’s set ended, more people piled in and the floor space filled up as Devon Gilfillian and his band took the stage.

The first thing you notice about Devon is that he walked out with a huge smile; you could tell he was really glad to be there. As he and his band started their first song, I was hooked. They started off with unmatched energy and excitement. I had never listened to Devon’s music before the concert, but realizing it touches all the essentials of R&B/Soul, I was pleased.

Devon’s band is a four-piece: he plays guitar, and his bandmates play drums, bass, and keyboard/synthesizer. But the small detail I loved was that they often sang in four-part harmony. The venue did a great job with the mix, and all four voices blended magically.

I mentioned before that the smaller venue did a lot of favors for their performance. Everything felt intimate and like Devon was dancing with us. Even when slow jams would come, the momentum was never lost.

As I watched him, I thought I could totally see Devon having a hit that would blow up on social media and put him more on the map. The potential is there; something just needs to click to resonate with bigger audiences and the rising generation (I seemed to be the only one under 40 in attendance).

There were three key moments that stood to me that night:

The first was Devon telling the story of his father nearly dying a few years ago, and him coming to terms with mortality was reflected in a surreal way when he performed “Glad To Be Here”; so much so that I got teary-eyed.

Second, Devon performed a full cover of Marvin Gaye’s album “What’s Going On,” and when he performed the title track, the whole audience sang in unison.

Finally, to cap off the already high energy of the night, it went up another ten notches when he closed out with “Black Dog Rabbit Hole”.

Before this concert, I listened to a few of Gilfillian’s songs and wasn’t really vibing with it, but seeing his live performance has made me a fan. If you ever get the chance, don’t miss seeing Devon Gilfillian perform live.

— Jaeden Tueller