![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lifestyle_20241011_DiPiazzasJazzCombo_6506.jpg?resize=696%2C464&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMillie Reynolds played electric guitar while dressed as a vampire for the second jazz combo, The Honeypack. The combo played the well-known jazz standard, “Beautiful Love” by Bill Evans. (Samantha Navarro)<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t get to pick the songs this time around, but we will next time. Pat assigns the songs based on skill level,\u201d Brounstein said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The third combo, \u201cWildlife Expedition,\u201d began their set with the classic jazz song \u201cAll of Me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWildlife Expedition\u201d featured singer Earnest Kemeny, guitarist Tamara Rodriguez, drummer Allen Johnston, xylophonist Wren Ablaza, and bassist Alison Lewis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kemeny has been singing for years and started jazz combos in the fall of 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pat Sheng made this jazz night a Halloween costume contest, so Kemeny was dressed as a sailor and Lewis as a witch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LBCC student, Alison Lewis played bass for the jazz combo, “Wildlife Expedition” dressed as a witch for the Halloween costume contest. Lewis said the most valuable thought to have in mind while performing was, “To just stay present.” (Samantha Navarro)<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kemeny held a quiet authority on stage and captivated the audience with his vibrato and call-and-response sections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lewis, a former middle-school teacher turned bassist, smiled to herself through the set and gained more confidence as time went on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI played bass in 1979 for a new wave punk band, then became a middle school teacher for 33 years. Jazz is a whole different language,\u201d Lewis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because Sheng picks the combo groups, students get the chance to grow closer with their combos as the semester progresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor two days out of the week (the combos) are completely alone, one of those days is spent in a tiny practice room. Everyone has been really nice and encouraging,\u201d said Lewis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout all of the combos, one sentiment was shared: Pat Sheng deserves high praise for the work he does with the combo students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI haven\u2019t performed before. I probably wouldn\u2019t do anything like this without the class,\u201d Williams, who plays the keyboard for \u201cAmber and the Pink Ponies\u201d said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Students will stay with their combos for the rest of the semester and will perform again at DiPiazza\u2019s on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jazz tunes new and old took hold of DiPiazza\u2019s on Thursday night as a part of Long Beach City College\u2019s jazz combos\u2019 second performance of the semester. Every month, Long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":15759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5428],"tags":[753,5319,1498,2131,29,1263,142,68,377,5309,3364,5310,5318,5320],"class_list":["post-15758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-dipiazzas","tag-hopkins","tag-jazz","tag-jazz-combo","tag-lbcc","tag-lifestyle","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-city-college","tag-music","tag-navarro","tag-samantha","tag-samantha-navarro","tag-sofia","tag-sofia-hopkins"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Skgy-46a","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lifestyle_20241011_DiPiazzasJazzCombo_6456-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15765,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15758\/revisions\/15765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lifestyle_20241011_DiPiazzasJazzCombo_6553.jpg?w=696&ssl=1\")
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