Rave Reviews From ASC Audience Members!

The Monterey Jazz Festival is currently on tour and performed at the Alys Stephens Center last Sunday, and the ones who were lucky enough to be there have been giving absolute praise on it. We love to hear from our audience, and that's exactly what we have gotten since. Feel free to send your input to ngarcia@uab.edu, and we’ll be glad to post it.

"I attended yesterday afternoon's Monterey Jazz Festival in Concert. It was, without a doubt, one of the finest jazz performances I've ever seen and heard. I lived in New Orleans for 15 years and have attended many Jazz Fests, but this was one of the most extraordinary jazz events I have ever had the pleasure to experience. Please include more concerts like this in future bookings. Keep up the very, very good work! Thanks." - Forrest Hinton, concertgoer.

“As for me, I was lucky enough to be able to see the show, and for the time that I was there, I was, quite literally, in Heaven. The sounds of Kenny Barron's piano playing, combined with Regina Carter's incredible violin skills, the absolute talent of Kiyoshi Kitigawa on cello/bass, the unbelievable drumming of Johnathan Blake, the spectacular doo-wop-style vocals of Kurt Elling, and the electrifying guitar playing of Russell Malone made for a fantastic afternoon that I will not soon forget. Never have I seen a live jazz show, and this certainly made me want to see more. There was one particular piece Kenny Barron called "Calypso," that was inspired by his days of listening to Caribbean-style rhythms, and it blew me away. It was nearly twenty minutes of sheer beauty, and the fact that, one, the piece, itself, was a brilliant example of composition, and two, the fact that every member of the group was able to play it so fluently. Obviously they had practiced, but it sounded like they had each been together for years. It was a moving sound the likes of which I cannot describe. It is concerts like these that I am glad to have gotten the opportunity to witness. What a show.”
- Andrew L Pressley, Student intern at the ASC