Jason Moran wows crowd

Lousea Huf, Contributing Writer

The highly anticipated Jason Moran and the Bandwagon concert, held at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts on April 17, featured jazz music and improvisation.

Moran is most famous for his critically-acclaimed album “Ten,” and many concert-goers were looking forward to seeing the artist in action.

Like many other jazz musicians, he and his group played improvisation style.

Moran played compositions inspired by artists such as Thelonious Monk and his wife Alicia Hall Moran, but he and his band also performed samples from Moran’s own musical collaborations. Blending modern media into his music, Moran played with a recording of Billie Holiday and a sound clip of Monk tap dancing in the background.

“I really enjoyed the performance! At first, I was confused as to why Jason Moran was fiddling with an iPod on stage during a performance, but then I realized that he was going to incorporate multi-media into his music. He successfully brought the voice of Billie Holiday and the footsteps of Thelonius Monk back to life,” Josh Wilson ’15 said.

One of the most poignant and heart-warming moments of Moran’s performance was his mention that his twin boys were back stage. As they tapped and swung their feet to their father’s music, audience members took note of Moran’s commitment to his family.

The energy and style that Moran infused into his piano playing made for an inspiring and energetic performance unique to a campus performance venue.

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