|
"Beyond
Category" was a term the great Duke Ellington used as the highest form of
praise for those artists who transcended normal boundaries. Since their
inaugural season in 1993, Rhythm &
Brass has lived up to the ideal of a musical presentation that is not bound
by time, geography or culture. With the unique ability to incorporate influences
as divergent as Josquin Des Prez, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane, Johann Sebastian
Bach, and, of course, Duke Ellington, Rhythm & Brass searches for the commonality in these influences
and fearlessly weaves them all into a single concert experience.
While
maintaining a full touring schedule, Rhythm
& Brass has also performed at numerous special events including a 1994
New York concert debut at Carnegie Recital Hall with celebrated jazz trumpeter
Randy Brecker. Commissions have been premiered at Chicago's Mid-West
International Band and Orchestra Clinic and the national convention of the Music
Educator's National Conference. R&B has also been featured at the New York
Brass Conference, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Raphael Mendez
Brass Institute, Kentucky's Great American Brass Band Festival, the National
Trumpet Competition and the National Association of Music Merchants Convention
in Los Angeles. Internationally, Rhythm & Brass has concertized in Canada, Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Japan, the Virgin Islands and is preparing for a 2005 tour
to Tailand.
Song
& Dance (1994), the group's first CD on d'Note Records, is an immensely
versatile program of works from the 17th century composer Samuel Scheidt to the
World Premiere recording of “Dance Suite” by Leonard Bernstein, his last
composed work. Their second album, Time in
September (1995), includes original jazz compositions by R&B members and
features award winning guitarist Gene Bertoncini as well as a commissioned work
by the Grammy Nominated composer Maria Schneider.
Christmas Time is Here (1996) was hailed by the national press as one of the
most creative recordings for the holiday season. R&B's recording More
Money Jungle. . .Ellington Explorations (1998), on the KochJazz label,
celebrates the centenary (1999) of one of America's most significant composers
and musical ambassadors, Duke Ellington. The album was described by Entertainment
Weekly as "...smart and deliciously off-centered..." and was named
by the New York Times as "Album of the Week" (May 7, 1999). Rhythm
& Brass is currently being featured on "BET on Jazz" (Black
Entertainment Television) performing several segments of the Ellington album.
Their latest release, Sitting in an English Garden Waiting for the Sun, is an outrageous
salute to the British invasion and includes music by The Beatles, Pink Floyd,
and Led Zeppelin.
Rhythm & Brass just released “Inside the Blue Suitcase” featuring
original compositions by members of the group.
The
members of Rhythm & Brass maintain an active involvement in music
education. Of particular interest is the promotion of chamber music in the
schools. Their book, Team Play: a Guide to making Chamber Music Together
(Universal Edition), is a method by which educator and student alike can take
part in the joys of chamber music. Rhythm
& Brass has given workshops and lectures on this subject at the Music
Educator's National Conference and the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra
Clinic as well as authoring an article for the Instrumentalist, one of the most important music education
publications. The group is often found in residence at major universities
throughout the nation as well as summer music camps and festivals such as Bands
of America and the Brevard Music Center.
Rhythm & Brass is a Yamaha
Performing Ensemble.
BACK
TO TOP
Duke
& Louis
"Beyond
Category" was a term that the great Duke Ellington used as the highest form
of praise for those artists who transcended normal boundaries.
There is no better way to describe the genius of two of America's
greatest musical icons, Louis Armstrong and, of course, Ellington himself.
Armstrong's virtuosity on the trumpet combined with his revolutionary
style of improvisation propelled jazz to new heights while his infectious
personality endeared him to radio, Broadway, film, and concert audiences.
Ellington's assimilation of music from Africa, Latin America, The Middle
and Far East among others made him the personification of "world
music" before anyone heard of that phrase.
Join Rhythm & Brass as they celebrate the music of Armstrong,
Ellington and others in a concert experience that is truly "Beyond
Category."
Duke
& Louis at the Holidays
Expect
the unexpected. Christmas music by
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane? Swing'n tunes by Louis Armstrong? In addition
to the classic beauty of traditional Christmas music, Rhythm & Brass has
searched some unlikely places (including their own compositions) for welcome
additions that help to express the many moods of the holiday season. Experience
a "salsa" Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the joyful Duke Ellington
Nutcracker Suite, and many more surprises. The holiday season will never be the
same.
On
Your Radio Dial
Ever
drive across America spinning the radio dial? America is the melting pot of
musical styles. On the radio in your hometown, at any given minute, almost any
musical taste can be satisfied.
Rhythm
& Brass brings its dynamic performance style to the music that defines the
American radio landscape- jazz, blues, country, rock, classical. In a program
that includes Duke Ellington and Pink Floyd, Hank Williams and Bob Marley, Beck
and Elvis, Rhythm & Brass spins the radio dial and creates a memorable and
uniquely American concert experience.
Out
of New Orleans
The
popular conception of New Orleans as an incubator of the infant jazz, while
true, is somewhat limited given the Crescent City’s broader contributions to
the music world. Like a great pot of gumbo, the flavor of the city’s musical
roots comes from the variety of its ingredients. One essential ingredient in
this case is a cultural heritage that is unlike any other in American history.
From
1718 until 1803, New Orleans alternated between French and Spanish rule. The mix
of those two European cultures born in America was known as Creole. Freed slaves
who had families with these Creoles raised children referred to as Creoles of
Color. Both groups were highly educated and successful people who spoke French
and Spanish. Music was an essential element in the Creole household as a way of
maintaining European traditions. In fact, New Orleans supported a resident
symphony orchestra and three opera houses during this time, more than any other
American city.
Beginning
in the late 1790s, freed slaves from Haiti and Cuba began settling in New
Orleans. Each group brought their own musical traditions and, with each new
tradition, another ingredient was added to the unique mix of sounds emanating
from New Orleans. By the early 1900s, New Orleans was a city with French and
Italian opera, military bands, dance music, Caribbean and Mexican influences,
African American songs (spirituals), and blues to name a few. Eventually, the
music we refer to as jazz evolved from the confluence of these diverse
traditions.
Yes, New Orleans is a birthplace of jazz but, more importantly, it offers a
hybrid of musical cultures unlike any other American city. It is in this spirit
that Rhythm & Brass presents “Out of New Orleans” -- a celebration of
enormously eclectic influences -- simultaneously acknowledging tradition while
searching for something new.
Being
equally at home performing the music of J.S. Bach, Pink Floyd, and Duke
Ellington, Rhythm & Brass has the unique ability to guide a listener on a
tour through the cultural melting pot of New Orleans.
The
tour takes one through the streets where the brass bands led funeral
processions, to the stage of the military bands at the height of Sousa’s
popularity, to the parlors where the “American Chopin”, Louis, Moreau
Gottschalk, was dazzling audiences with his pianistic virtuosity, to the
burlesque houses where Jelly Roll Morton’s piano provided the appropriate bump
and grind for the activities of the red-light district, to the opera houses
where sentinels of European music such as Rossini and Donizetti could be heard,
to the recording studio where Fats Domino was bridging traditional jazz to rock
‘n roll, and to the French Quarter where the preservation of traditional
Dixieland still draws crowds. Residing amongst these giants are original
compositions by Rhythm & Brass that pay homage the grooves and innovative
spirit that is New Orleans.
Rhythm
& Brass with Orchestra
Fred
Sturm
A Place Where It Would Always Be Spring
for Rhythm & Brass, Symphony Orchestra, and Narrator
Text compilation by Paul S. Kitzke
notes
by composer Fred Sturm
Baseball
and music have intertwined throughout my life. Dad was a Chicago Symphony
cellist with a knuckleball that fooled me until I was seventeen and Mom-a
professional contralto-could hit a softball a country mile. My boyhood home was
filled with the sounds of string quartets, CSO/ Reiner recordings, voice
lessons, and Cub games on Channel 9. As the folks tried to pave the way for my
life in music, I dreamed of batting Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, and Kubek in the
World Series. Years later, long after I realized that my address was going to be
somewhere in music education rather than at Wrigley Field, my wife and I built a
backyard diamond for our two bonus babies and coached boys and girls baseball in
the summertime. I now find a night in the stands at Rochester's Silver Stadium
the perfect way to cap a day of teaching at the Eastman School of Music.
A
Place Where It Would Always Be Spring incorporates music, poetry, and prose to
capture the universal magic of America's fields of dreams. Richard Hugo's From
Altitude, the Diamonds provides a nostalgic view of the game from above. A
citation from Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River portrays the majesty of the
major league stadium in The Miracle of Light. Douglass Wallop's Baseball: An
Informal History recalls a boy's Saturday morning games and describes A Place
Where It Would Always Be Spring. Baseball great Pete Reiser's sweetest memories,
preserved by writer Donald Honig, are quoted in When the Grass Was Real. The
poetry of Rolfe Humphries describes the mood, tempo, and rhythm of baseball in
Night Game and Time is of the Essence .... Former Baseball Commissioner A.
Bartlett Giamatti's The Green Fields of the Mind promotes the playing of the
game in the only place it will last. The Empty Playing Field accompanies W. P.
Kindella's loving recollections of an empty, fall stadium (from Shoeless Joe).
Roger Angell's The Summer Game delivers a plan to keep the rally alive forever
in Baseball's Time.
Former
New York Yankee shortstop and NBC sportscaster Tony Kubek was the narrator for
the first performance of this work. Thanks to Tony, Mickey Mantle had a
recording of A Place Where It Would Always Be Spring in the hospital room during
his final weeks of life. My Dad died two months after the 1995 premiere, and I
later found the score that I had sent on his dresser-with his umpire's counter
from my childhood.
The
commissioning of A Place Where It Would Always Be Spring was made possible by a
grant from the Meet the Composer/ Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, in
partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila
Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
Holiday
Concert
Rhythm
& Brass with Symphony Orchestra
Duke
Ellington Celebration
Rhythm
& Brass with Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, or Band
Sitting
in an English Garden
Rhythm & Brass with Orchestra
Beatles repertoire
BACK
TO TOP
Please
contact Baylin Artists for full descriptions of
the following activities.
Student
Matinee
(Primary & Secondary
Schools)
Designed
for general student bodies, this event is typically 50-60 minutes in length with
Rhythm & Brass performing its "best of" concert. The event will
appeal to any age group. Large audiences are not a concern as long as an
appropriate introduction and adult supervision are provided.
Matinee/Clinic
Length: 60 minutes
Audience: appropriate for middle school through high school
This
event is primarily a performance; however, it is designed for music students.
Attendance by members of the school band, orchestra, and choir is encouraged.
Students will have the opportunity of learning specifics about the music
performed by R&B and have the opportunity to ask questions regarding musical
concerns, careers, etc.
R&B
Clinic
Typically
the length of a class period; informal format. R&B performs several pieces
and offers a discussion including personal backgrounds, practice techniques,
music careers, etc. Suitable for band members and for all music students.
Clinic
Length: 60-90 minutes
Audience: appropriate for Brass and Percussion students and general music
students in middle school through college
This
residency activity is focused on performance practice, technique, and styles and
aims to improve the music students' playing. Rhythm & Brass' publication, Team Play with Rhythm &
Brass: a guide to making chamber music, has been published by Universal Edition.
It is available in the United States through J.W. Pepper or
European/American Music. If you
choose to do a clinic, Rhythm & Brass encourages the purchase and use of
these books. If a music educator does purchase a set of books specifically
for the visit, it will be made available through the Rhythm & Brass office
at a discount. A set may be
purchased for $70.00. Included are
five books: C, E flat, F, B flat, and Bass Clef.
R&B will gladly offer suggestions as to which exercises to prepare
for the visit.
Masterclasses
Length: 45 - 60 minutes
Audience: appropriate for high school through college
Masterclasses
offer students the opportunity to receive specific information for their
particular instruments. R&B offers classes for trumpet, horn, trombone,
tuba, and percussion. If there is interest, sessions in composition &
arranging, jazz improvisation, stage fright, the business of music, etc., are
also available.
Coaching
Sessions
Length: 60 minutes
Members
of R&B observe rehearsals by school music groups (band, jazz ensemble, or
chamber groups) or sections from ensembles. R&B will offer suggestions and
"work" the ensemble.
Private
Lessons
Individual
members of Rhythm & Brass will make themselves available for private lessons
to university students. Fees are reasonable and payable directly to the teacher.
Lecture/
Demonstration
Length: 50 minutes
Audience: appropriate for middle school through college age students
In
this residency activity, Rhythm & Brass shares its history, programming
choices, and knowledge of music through narratives, performance, and Q&A.
School
Performance
Rhythm & Brass Musical Journey
Length: 50-60 minutes
Audience: appropriate for elementary through high school students
This
residency activity is centered on introducing students to a wide range of
musical genres and composers through performance.
Extended
Residencies
On
a limited basis, R&B is available for residencies of 2-5 days. These events
can be tailored to the needs of the community, combining the events described
above with a full evening concert.
With
the unique capacity to perform music as divergent as Pink Floyd, Johann
Sebastian Bach, and Duke Ellington, the members of Rhythm & Brass will guide
the students through a labyrinth of musical history.
Bridges are built not only from the past to the present, but across
international, political, and cultural boundaries.
By the end of a residency, a student will understand such things as how
music relates to architecture, how painters and composers influence each other,
and what role politics has played in music.
In addition, they will gain an appreciation for the fact that
"their" music--rock 'n roll, alternative, and rap--has been influenced
by music that was written centuries ago.
Note:
The tech requirements listed on the stage plot are also required for residency
activities, except for the lighting. Rhythm
& Brass requires a 60-90 minute load-in time for activities.
BACK
TO TOP
-
Inside
the Blue Suitcase Bear
Claw Records (2004)
-
Sitting
in an English Garden Bear
Claw Records (2001)
-
More
Money Jungle Koch Jazz (1998)
Ellington
Explorations:
-
Christmas
time is here d'Note
Records (1996)
-
Time
in September (Jazz) d'Note
Records (1995)
-
Song
& Dance d'Note Records (1994)
(previously released as Rhythm & Brass)
Tom
Brantley jazz and classical recording:
Rex
Richardson solo and jazz recordings:
BACK
TO TOP
Please contact Baylin Artists for
Technical Information.
BACK
TO TOP
|
