Review: “The Carn Davidson 5+4” Review

     On Tuesday night Sept.18th, 2018 there was a fantastic concert which happened in the Lorne Watson Recital Hall. There were nine great musicians performing in this concert including Greg Gatien (Tenor Saxophone), Matt Steckler (Baritone Saxophone&Bass Clarinet), and Aaron Wilson (Bass Trombone) who is from Brandon University. There were also guests from Toronto: Tara Davidson (Alto Saxophone& Flute), Williams Carn (Trombone), Alex Brown (Lead Trumpet), Dan Fortin (Acoustic Bass), Ernesto Cervini (Drums) and the Dean Mcneil (2nd Trumpet) from Saskatoon.

     Tara Davidson introduced each piece before the band started, and led the band extremely well in the position of composer. Williams Carn is also a talented conductor who composed for Murphy’s Law and other compositions.

There were soloist’s in each of the songs, with the audience giving each member a big applause in recognition of their piece when they finished. I really liked the beginning song ‘Code Breaking’ which is very exciting and caught the audiences’ interests. In contrast of ‘Code Breaking,’ the second song ‘Family Portrait’ was in a slow tempo and sounds very gentle, accenting the two songs different styles while both remaining beautiful pieces of art. Another brilliant song which the band played included ‘Second Art’ which has a lovely beginning melody which reminded me of the sound of the famous Japanese composer Miyazaki Hayao.

   The drum players really made the concert come to life, and you could tell that each musician really applied themselves into the music. The musicians brought an overwhelming energy to the audience, which could be seen as the audience involuntarily swayed with each song, as if they were entranced by the rhythm.

    Before the final piece, Tara introduced all the guests on the stage, and then the ending pieces took place to finish off the evening. The final song was a quiet one, which came to a completion with group humming at the end. The humming was an eloquent way to end the piece, being so gentle and sweet to hear from a team who clearly worked long hours perfecting their performance.