On March 27, I attended the MiraCosta College 3rd Annual Oceanside Jazz Festival. The performing artists included Frequency and the main attraction of the event, M-Pact. Both groups were very unique and had fun, catchy tunes. However, M-Pact, and their human percussion/beat-boxer, Jeff Smith, stole the show with their pop-jazz vocals.
I never thought I was a fan of jazz, but M-Pact changed that entirely. I won’t bother getting into Frequency since they were shortly lived for the beginning half of the show. One thing I thought was most impressive about them was that they had no instrumental backup or additional vocals aside from their own. Both Jeff and Trist Curless provided the intense backbeats to lay down the foundation for the entire group. Lead singer Britt Quentin supplied the main pop vocals for ensemble. M-Pact performed a lot of popular songs by famous artists including Stevie Wonder, Motown, and various musical hits. Some of the songs included “Have A Talk With God”, “Baby I Need Your Loving”, “My Favorite Things”, and many others. They concluded their performance with a medley of various musicals and popular television show themes, such as “Cheers”, “The Jettsons”, and, possibly one of The Beatles greatest hits, “Come Together”.
I rather liked this show very much. It was rather relaxing just to go out and listen to some live music for about an hour and a half. I even bought one of their CDs afterwards, so now I can enjoy their music whenever I want to!
