Sunday, 6th September 2009

Welcome to Brasscast, hosted by Lucas Burns.

This week we are featuring the Rockport Legion Band from the USA. You can find them at rockportlegionband.wordpress.com on the internet. Also includes an interview with Steve Thomas, their Music Director.

Numbers played this week include 1. Charles .E. Duble -- Galop Zip Boom (1920) (C.E. Duble was a native of Jeffersonville, Indiana. He's best-known for his march "Bravura", but he also wrote this circus galop in 1920.) 2. John .P. Sousa -- Belle of Chicago (1892) (J.P. Sousa wrote this march in 1892 as a "salute to the ladies of Chicago". It wasn't a hit with many critics, however. Paul Bierley cited some critical remarks in his book on the music of John Philip Sousa. These included "Sousa regards the Chicago belle as a powerful creature, ...... with the swinging stride of a giant, ......a voice like a foghorn, and feet like sugar-cured hams." A second wrote :"Sousa made his Chicago belle a strapping kitchen wench". 3. Thomas . Allen -- General Mixup, U.S.A. (1906) (Thomas Allen wrote this "mixup" in 1906. It's the type of music the British call a "lightning switch" -- a medley of juxtaposed phrases from different songs made into a single piece.). This one uses many "patriotic" melodies of the time. 4. James B. Lampe -- Watermelon Club Rag (1908) (J. B. Lampe wrote this rag in 1908. Lampe was the son of a Danish conductor who emigrated when his father was hired to conduct the Great Western Band in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lampe himself played first violin in the Minneapolis Symphony, but was more interested in writing popular music. This particular rag was edited by Bill Park, who is on the staff of the the Digital Band Music PDF Library in Ohio). 5. Perry G. Lowrey -- Prince of Decorah Galop (1913) (P.G. Lowrey was a conductor, arranger, and cornet virtuoso for the Ringling Brothers side show band between 1920 and 1931. Several well-known band leaders of other circus bands thought so highly of him that they tried to hire him as an arranger and cornet soloist for their own groups. Lowrey was the first African-American to graduate from the Boston Conservatory of music; "Prince of Decorah" is his only known published composition, and is named for his publisher, who lived and worked in Decorah, Iowa).

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24 Minutes and 23 Mb.