The National Community Band - July 2009

[Gandalfe]

Any takers? Suzy and I will be there again this year.

http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs055/1102200742753/img/2.jpg?a=1102429256311
July 10-12, 2009
Loyola University
New Orleans, Louisiana
www.sousafoundation.org (http://www.sousafoundation.org)
Dear Jim,

Just a quick note to remind and update you on the John Philip Sousa Foundation's NATIONAL COMMUNITY BAND next July in New Orleans.

Our goal is to seat a properly balanced 100 piece band and we are getting close to that realization with 74 members already signed up. Here are the remaining openings for the band:
2- Oboes
1- Bassoon
4- Bb Clarinets
4- Trumpets
6- Horns
3- Trombones
2- Tubas
1- String Bass
3- Percussionists
All other sections not listed here are FULL. We will begin a "waiting list" for seats as sections fill up.

If you have given any thought to joining us this summer, don't hesitate any longer - send in your Registration fee and application today. You can go directly to the application on the Sousa Foundation website at www.sousafoundation.org (http://www.sousafoundation.org) and follow the links to Projects and Awards, then to The National Community Band.

Here are a few more details on the weekend's activities:

The rehearsals will begin on Friday evening, July 10 and the concert will in the afternoon of Sunday, July 12. You should plan to arrive in New Orleans no later than 5pm on the 10th and can plan to depart anytime after 5pm on the 12th.


HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS- You are responsible for booking and paying for your own room. We have rooms blocked at two hotels in New Orleans for next July 10 - 12. Both are very reasonably priced, but one is located nearer to the Loyola Campus and the other is a bit closer to the French Quarter. Both offer access to the Street Car that runs from the French Quarter to Loyola and back.


MAISON ST. CHARLES HOTEL AND SUITES
1319 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 522-0187
www.maisonstcharles.com (http://www.maisonstcharles.com)

King Occupancy - $109+ tax
QQ/Double Occupancy - $119+ tax
Triple/Quad Occupancy - $129/139= tax
These rates apply from 7/10 through 7/13
When booking your room mention the "National Community Band"



HAMPTON INN DOWNTOWN-FRENCH QUARTER
226 Carondelet Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 529-9990
www.neworleanshamptoninns.com (http://www.neworleanshamptoninns.com)

Single-Quad Occupancy - $89.00+ tax

When booking a room use code (NCB)

Chair and part assignments will be made in May and music will be mailed to you in early June (plenty of time to practice).

Sincerely,


Gerald Guilbeaux
The National Community Band

[Gandalfe]

Got the music for next month:
Overture to Rienzi – Wagner/Grabel
The Gallant Seventh - Sousa/Bourgeois
Pasquinade – Gottschalk/Leidzen
Grotesque Dance - Halvorsen/Bourgeois
Star Above, Brightly Shining – Balmadges
Carnival Day – Morrisey
Satchmo – arr by Ricketts
At A Dixieland Jazz Funeral – Spears
Country Gardens – Grainger/Sousa
People Who Live in Glass Houses – Sousa/Bourgeois
Stars and Stripes Forever - Sousa/Bourgeois

[SOTSDO]

So, someone still plays real music in a concert band. All I've ever seen (outside of the stuff I've played in the dark, distant past with Compton Heights in Saint Louis) with concert bands I've visited is the dumbed down and 'graded' stuff with 'made up name' and equalized melody writing.

I grew up with Rossini and Granger, and really missed the quality transcriptions that were our daily fare in high school. Somewhere along the line band music got too homogenized for my tastes, and the resultant drought drove me away to orchestras, from whence I have yet to return.

[hakukani]

Yep, that or percussion ensemble with band accompaniment. That's what many university bands seem to play.

The Hawaii County Band still plays a monthly concert with 34 to 36 players. They'll have at least one orchestral transcription, a new piece, a crowd pleaser, and a march or two.

[EliR]

So, someone still plays real music in a concert band. All I've ever seen (outside of the stuff I've played in the dark, distant past with Compton Heights in Saint Louis) with concert bands I've visited is the dumbed down and 'graded' stuff with 'made up name' and equalized melody writing.

A few of us still get to play great stuff. I just got home from our 4th of July concert, in which we played (among other things) Sousa's Fairest of the Fair and Stars & Stripes Forever, Silva's Highland Celebration, John Williams' overture from "1941", a medley from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and more. We've also recently performed Holst's 2nd Suite in F. Take a look at some of our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/WWValleyBands to see that there really is musical life in Walla Walla, Washington.

[Gandalfe]

Suzy and I got back to casa du glassa around 1 AM this morning. We were jamming 4 daze into three. Suzy got plane tickets and two nights a the Ritz Carlton using miles from one of our credit cards. That and the flight to the Baltics in June pretty much killed 8 years of accumulated miles. 8-)

New Orleans is way too hot and muggy for my taste, but the food, people, and sights were top drawer. We made extensive use of the trolley and saw a lot more of the city that way. We did not visit any of the still demolished areas. But one of the sax guyz, said that someone overlayed a map of the city from the 1800s over the current city map, and the areas that were devastated were not considered habitable back then.

The community band consisted of 102 musicians from practicing pros and teachers to the perennial wannabes (like me). Of the five alto saxes, I was the only slug. Everyone else did paid gigs regularly, were music majors, and could kick ass in most bands. I learned a lot during the weekend.

From Friday till the end of the gig on Sunday night, we played a total of 12 hours. It was a chop buster but those of us saving our chops for the gig did just fine. I don't know how the brass was able to pull this off. The Loyola staff were bend over back wards good to us. I'm toying with donating something to their music program.

Suzy and I will probably do this again in two years as they are going to Boston. We had absolutely no problem bring everything we needed as carry-on. Every year in the second week of July they go somewhere. Next year is Vegas, but we already have plans then. We learned a lot about Sousa during this weekend and met a lot of nice people.

[retread]

Sounds like you enjoyed it. Did you make it to Cafe Du Monde?

[Gandalfe]

Yes, and much, much more. We even bought a box of the French donuts that no two people pronounce the same. 8-)

[Gandalfe]

Another viewpoint about this event: http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=89476

"Every section was entirely people capable of playing first stand in any community band. Col. Bourgeois was very patient (we must have been quite a change from the Marines) and did an excellent job of getting the best out of us. The hall at Loyola is pretty new. The stage easily accommodated our number without crowding and was designed specifically for musical performance, with a shell-like enclosure on all sides and the ceiling. The house is steeply raked, stadium style seating giving everybody in attendance a good view as well as a good sound."