American Masterworks: Strike Up The Band!
March 15, 2024 - 7:00pm, Rancho Campana High School Performing Arts Center
March 17, 2024 - 3:00pm, First United Methodist Church Ventura
All concerts are General Admission: Advanced purchase of $20 online. Suggested donations at the door. Students and kids are free and welcome! Cash, cards, and digital forms of payment are accepted.
Strike Up The Band
by George Gershwin
-
George Gershwin is often cited as one of America’s greatest composers. He is best known for Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Concerto in F (for piano), the songs “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Summertime,” and “Swanee,” and his opera Porgy and Bess. (His long-lost opera La La Lucille was recently found at Amherst College.) He was born in 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Los Angeles in 1937. He was only 38 years old. On this concert, we hear a song from one of his stage musicals, Strike Up the Band. Originally a political satire about war, with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin, the musical opened in Philadelphia in 1927, but was not well received. Rewritten to be less offensive to some audiences, it subsequently had a relatively successful run on Broadway in 1930. “Strike Up the Band” is one of the two songs from the musical that survived to the present day, the other being “The Man I Love.” This arrangement for orchestra by John Whitney is a rousing march—and a great way to begin this season’s fourth concert.
—written by Ted Lucas, CHICO Board of Directors
Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
by John Williams
Steve Marsh, saxophone
Dean Hinkley, vibraphone
Larry Tuttle, jazz bass
-
The composer of the music for the film Star Wars and more than 75 other films, John Williams is also a composer of numerous works of modern classical music, including concertos, sonatas, chamber music, and a symphony. Escapades originated as music for the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score (one of more than 50 Oscar nominations for Williams). He has said that he wanted to capture the mood of the 1960s by infusing his film score with elements of progressive jazz, a style popular in that decade. Escapades followed in 2003 and won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement when an audio recording was made. In the form of a concerto in three movements for alto saxophone and orchestra, Escapades consists entirely of music from the film, and falls stylistically somewhere between his popular film music and his modern classical music. The saxophone part is written in such a way that it sounds as if it is entirely improvised, but the soloist is given no opportunity in the score to ad lib. The first movement, “Closing In,” is the music that represents the pursuit of the main character by the FBI. Its organizing element is a four-note motif—a triplet followed by a quarter note—and includes sound effects by the orchestra members. The movement is dominated by Charlie Parker-like flights of virtuosity on the saxophone and impressive mallet work by the vibraphone as it often plays in unison with the saxophone. There is an extended string bass solo toward the end of the movement. The second movement, “Reflections,” features a slow and poignant theme that represents the fragile relationship between the main character and his father. But even at a slow tempo, the saxophone has some alarmingly fast notes to play. The third movement is entitled “Joy Ride,” and is a cheerful and playful escapade representing the main character’s wild adventures as a con-man. This work is quite difficult to prepare and perform—but a pleasure to watch and hear.
—written by Ted Lucas, CHICO Board of Directors
Harlem Symphony
by James Price Johnson
I. Subway Journey
II. April in Harlem
III. Night Club
IV. Baptist Mission
-
James P. Johnson was an early contributor to the Harlem Renaissance—the flowering of African American art, music, literature, drama, poetry, and social and political thought in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a strong influence on the younger musicians we usually associate with those fabulous decades, most notably Duke Ellington and William Grant Still. Johnson, himself, was influenced by the piano rags of Scott Joplin and became well-known as an accomplished ragtime piano player. His style eventually evolved into the stride style of piano playing, a more laid-back, relaxed style, and he is credited with being one of the major figures in the evolution of ragtime to jazz. He was also a composer, two of his pieces being “Carolina Shout” and “Charleston,” the latter composed to accompany the dance rage of the Roaring Twenties. Harlem Symphony, his longest and most complex work, was completed in 1932 and is a musical tour of Harlem in four movements. Johnson provided some descriptions of the tour, as follows: First movement, the subway leaves Penn Station as the brass section of the orchestra plays a stately theme. The train passes “110th Street-The Jewish Neighborhood,” then “116th Street-Spanish Neighborhood,” and “125th Street-Shopping District,” then “135th Street-Negro Neighborhood,” then along “7th Avenue Promenade,” and finally arriving back at “Penn Station,” with a return of the opening theme. The second movement, “April in Harlem” (originally entitled “Song of Harlem”), betrays Johnson’s affection for that northern Manhattan neighborhood, with lovely melodies in the oboe, clarinet and French horn, supported by lush harmonies in the strings. The third movement, “Night Club,” is a lively dance-like piece in the style of Joplin’s piano rags and borrows some melodic material from a 1913 piano roll called “Junk Man Rag,” by Luckey Roberts. The fourth movement, “Baptist Mission,” is a jazzy theme and seven variations on the hymn “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me.” Harlem Symphony had its last performance in 1945 before it was rediscovered in the early 1990s. Since then, it has had many performances on American and European stages.
—written by Ted Lucas, CHICO Board of Directors
Pirates of the Caribbean
-
While Hans Zimmer wrote the soundtrack for four of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, it was the German composer Klaus Badelt who wrote the memorable soundtrack to the first of the five blockbuster movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It was his first major film soundtrack, and the one that launched his career as a film composer. He went on to write the soundtracks for films such as Constantine, Poseidon, Premonition, TMNT, and The Promise. In this medley from Bedelt’s score, arranged by Ted Ricketts, we hear some of the more popular themes, such as “Fog Bound,” “The Medallion Calls,” “The Black Pearl,” “He’s a Pirate,” and others. Almost all of the themes are in the minor mode, creating a dark and ominous feel. Many of the themes are variations on the main title theme, the audio track giving the movie consistency and continuity.
—written by Ted Lucas, CHICO Board of Directors
Star Wars Suite
by John Williams
I. Main Title
II. Princess Leia’s Theme
III. The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)
IV. Yoda’s Theme
V. Throne Room & End Title
-
For over 60 years, John Williams has composed memorable and celebrated music for films and television, his first feature film being Daddy-O in 1958, credited as Johnny Williams. For television, he wrote the theme music for the series Lost in Space in 1965 and continues to this day to write for television. He had written music for several films before he was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Scoring of Music in a Film” for the movie Valley of the Dolls. After several more Academy nominations, he won an Oscar in 1971 for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score for the movie Fiddler on the Roof. And then, in 1975, he won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award for Best Original Score for the movie Jaws. Two years later, the movie Star Wars gained him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and a number of other awards. Since then, he has won several Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes for his film music. Even as recently as last year, his score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. In our concert, the Star Wars Suite is an array of the best-known and best-loved themes from the first two Star Wars movies, arranged by Williams for concert performances. “Main Title” is the most familiar of all the Star Wars themes—the music that accompanies the moving text at the beginning, often called the “opening crawl.” Another familiar selection is “Princess Leia’s Theme,” an enchanting melody played first by the French horn, then by the flute. The percussion section announces the start of “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme),” the ominous march theme stated by the trumpets and trombones as Darth Vader makes his first appearance, in The Empire Strikes Back. We hear “Yoda’s Theme” when Luke first meets Yoda in the same film. The theme undergoes numerous iterations depending on the mood of the scene, from humorous to sadly poignant when Yoda dies in Return of the Jedi. In “Throne Room and End Title” we first hear the brass section play a march as Han Solo, Luke and Chewbacca enter the hall to receive medals from Princess Leia. The music gradually evolves into the End Title with a quick return of the enduring theme of the film’s beginning.
—written by Ted Lucas, CHICO Board of Directors
Meet our soloist Steve Marsh
Steven Marsh has performed extensively in southern California on saxophone and other woodwind instruments since 1988. Steve’s teachers included Professor Joseph Wytko at Arizona State University, and Hollywood recording studio legend Gary Foster. Steve has been teaching woodwinds and music history courses at CSUCI in Camarillo since 2011, and he has often performed with the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra on 2nd clarinet and bass clarinet.
Marsh toured and recorded with Lyle Lovett for 25 years, and he has also performed with Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka, Mel Tormé, Bonnie Raitt, The Temptations, Lou Rawls, Brian Setzer, The Four Tops, Clare Fischer, Jack Sheldon, Ladd McIntosh, Chuck Flores, Bobby Shew, Lewis Nash, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra.
Steve performed on late night TV shows hosted by Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, and Conon O’Brian, and he made four appearances on PBS’s Austin City Limits show. Steve has performed on several movie scores, including The Firm and Major Leagues, and on TV shows such as The George Carlin Show, Beverly Hills 90210, Titans, The Nanny, Thirtysomething, and The Crazy Ones. In the recording studios of Nashville and Hollywood, Marsh has performed on Gold and Platinum selling records by Lyle Lovett, George Strait, and Brian Setzer.
Steve Marsh’s performing career has included a diverse range of music styles including Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock, R & B, Swing, Country Western, and Latin music. Steve’s touring career has included concert performances in Finland, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, as well as completing 27 lengthy tours all over the United States.
Meet our soloist Dean Hinkley
Dean Hinkley was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and has played and studied percussion for over 50 years. He started on piano when he was 7, playing in elementary school orchestras. When he started playing in junior high orchestras, his music director asked him to play concert chimes and glockenspiel on some pieces of music. At that point, he decided that percussion was a much better musical fit for him. Soon he was only playing percussion, adding timpani and xylophone to his growing instrument base. Dean started taking lessons from a then local freelance percussionist Tom Collier. Following about a year after him, he studied with the legendary mallet player Earl Hatch for several years, then with the remarkable studio percussionist Emil Richards for a few years. All during this time, he played in numerous concert bands, orchestras, stage bands, honors groups and was a session player in studios. He also performed with Glendale Music Theatre for several years as their percussionist and one of their stage crew.
Dean moved to the Portland, Oregon area in the late 1980's and played in numerous orchestras in the region, including Oregon Symphony, as well as with Portland Opera, Vancouver (WA) Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Rose City Chamber Orchestra, Portland Festival Symphony Orchestra, and the Bach Cantata Choir, to name a few.
He moved back down to the Los Angeles area in 2010 and has currently been performing with Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra, Westlake Village Symphony Orchestra, Moorpark Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Symphonic Winds, Gold Coast Wind Ensemble, and session playing in the studios.
Dean is married to his high school sweetheart and has 2 adult children, 3 adult step-children, 4 grandchildren and 3 step-grandchildren.
Meet our soloist Larry Tuttle
Larry is a free-lance bassist and composer in the Los Angeles area. He performs regularly with the San Fernando Valley Symphony, the Corona Symphony, The African American Chamber Music Society Orchestra, and the Moorpark Symphony, among others. He is the primary concert bassist for Amanda McBroom (composer of “The Rose”).
As a composer, Larry is the winner of the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Audience of the Future Composition Competition and placed second in the Keuris Composers Contest in The Netherlands. He is an often-commissioned composer in the world of wind ensemble and concert band, including recent commissions from the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, the University of Michigan Symphony Band, California State University at Fullerton, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Southern California, among others. His compositions can be found at www.larrytuttle.com.
He is also one of the world’s foremost composers, teachers, and performers of music for the Chapman Stick, a hybrid instrument that combines qualities of guitar, bass, and piano. Larry made several recordings on The Stick with his groups FREEWAY PHILHARMONIC and STRING PLANET. His solo album of compositions for The Stick, THROUGH THE GATES, is considered to be one of the landmark recordings of that instrument, and he has taught at the Interlochen Stick Seminar.