The Cerritos College Pop Rock band rocked the Student Center Thursday, Mach 26 and performed to fellow musicians and audience members for the first time this semester.
The Jazz and Pop Rock Exchange concert featured not only the Pop Rock band but also the Gahr High School Jazz Band and the Paramount High School Funk Band.
Each group played a handful of songs for the audience, some classics such as ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ by Stevie Wonder and some new, popular music like ‘Treasure’ by Bruno Mars.
The two high school bands opened the show with their own unique styles of music, Gahr with an impressive and fun jazz performance, and Paramount with a smaller but equally loud and rhythmic show.
“It’s always a free event, and we really just try to create a win-win situation,” said David Betancourt, director of Bands and Orchestra.
He added, “So they can play their set and be appreciated by other musicians and the audience, and vice versa for all the groups.”
The Pop Rock band featured a wide array of musicians and four singers. One singer, Alexandra Farrell, who sung lead vocals for a handful of the songs, sang a rendition of Jill Scott’s ‘The Way’.
Farrell, nursing major, said, “My family grew up around music and I just love music, so it’s like an extracurricular.”
One thing of note was the fact that the band seemed to be running the show on their own.
Betancourt explained, “My goal is to teach them to be self-sufficient, like in life, right? So I want them to do it without me. So that’s what we work on in practice and we get to the point to what you saw tonight, which was me not doing anything and them just performing like a real band, with them leading themselves. I do prepare them.”
The band has been preparing for this show once a week since January.
“I just listen to the music,” Farrell spoke of their preparation, “When we come together we should already know our stuff, you know, so it’s really rehearsal more than practice.”
The band closed with the new and popular ‘Uptown Funk’ by Bruno Mars.
Audience member Michelle Hernandez, a Spanish major, said “I thought it was really great […] I think the last song was really good.” Hernandez was there as both audience and supporter for a saxophone-playing friend.
For their next performance the band is going out of town.
“This is our first one [show] of the semester but we are actually going on a trip to San Diego to perform for veterans,” Farrell said.
