A rhythmic melody filled the halls of Biedenharn Recital Hall Thursday night. It was the melodies of the Louis Romanos Quartet (LRQ).
Percussionist and composer Louis Romanos originally founded the quartet in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans in 2005 the quartet was relocated to Athens, Georgia.
The LRQ features Dan Sumner on guitar, Alex Noppe on trumpet, Neal Starkey on acoustic bass and Louis Romanos on drums.
The quartet was set to play 11 songs but later decided to give the audience more.
Teona Glave, a junior agriculture business management major said she wasn’t use to listening to jazz, but she enjoyed it.
“The music was soothing and something different that I don’t get to hear in Jamaica,” Glave said.
Romanos wrote every song played, and the quartet only plays music written by him.
They recently performed double-duty at the 2013 Maui Jazz Festival as they performed not only as LRQ, but also as backing for Tommy James of the Duke Elington Orchestra.
Sumner is currently an assistant professor of music education and guitar at ULM, and Noppe is a previous professor at ULM.
The band tours about four times a year and does a lot of performances in Hawaii, where they are working with the Makana Aloha Foundation and AECG to bring music to Maui and Oahu.
In another selection, Sketch Five Sumner was the featured player on his guitar, and despite getting sick before the performance, he continued to play.
Despite the rain, the band had quite a turn out for their concert, and when it ended the band was given a loud round of applause. Most of the audience consisted of faculty and students.
Some of the audience greeted the band after the performance ended.
Of the ones that stayed Brittany Garrison, a freshmen undeclared major, said she’s more of an audience member verses a participant.
“I could never see myself in a quartet, but I could definitely see myself listening to it again,” Garrison said.
The bass player gave a minor lesson after the concert to one of the ULM band students and told him a little about his instrument.
The LRQ recently put out a CD and copies were available for purchase after the performance.
