Boston Brass

I have quite a lot I'd like to write about in this blog, but haven't in awhile because I've just been so busy. The worst thing is, the more I do, the more there is to do, and I honestly don't think I can get caught up in all three of my difficult classes this semester. I'm to the point where I think I might have to choose which one I'm going to have to take over again. There was one highlight to the weekend, though, and that is that I took a break from my unproductive weekend to be unproductive at a very good concert by the Boston Brass.

The Boston Brass are a brass quintet from.... Boston. Not all the members are from Boston, but the quintet is. Even cooler than going to the concert was that I got to hang out with them and get to know them a bit before hand, so it was like going to a concert put on by a bunch of friends.

Bryce Mecham, who teaches Trombone at BYU-Idaho, has been keeping me involved in music events at the school even though I'm not a music major and I'm not officially taking music courses this semester, since they don't fit my schedule. I took lessons from him last semester, which was the first time I'd ever actually taken real Trombone lessons. Anyway, each of the brass faculty was allowed to invite two students to have lunch with the Boston Brass and BYU-Idaho brass faculty last Friday, and I was invited as one of Bryce Mecham's guests even though I'm not officially a student of his, which is extra cool. I sat near Jeff Conner, one of the trumpet players, and had casual conversation about music in general, and he asked questions about missions, since most of us there were returned missionaries. I also was invited to attend a master class taught by Andrew Hitz, the tuba player for Boston Brass (Lance LaDuke couldn't make it to teach the Trombones), and even though I was just there to listen and not play, I learned new things.

Then there was the concert. Actually, it was half concert, half comedy show. There was almost too much comedy; there was about 50/50 music and talking, and I think I'd have preferred more music. I'm not complaining, though, because these guys are hilarious. One of the trumpet players, Jose Sibaja, is from Costa Rica, so he introduced a couple Latin jazz songs. At one point, he claimed he could only do a set of songs justice by announcing it in Spanish, and had Lance translate, and of course the translation was deliberately botched. Later they invited to the stage a couple girls who had been cheering louder than the rest, and had them play a Hollywood Squares type game. One of the questions was about sports, and when Lance (who was "hosting" the show) asked if they knew anything about sports, one of the girls said "not the kind with balls," which made Kate and me laugh extra hard. As soon as she realized she'd said something that could be taken the wrong way, she was very embarrassed. They won free CDs, which was cool; I had to buy mine.

The music half was excellent. They played a wide variety of songs, from the famous bit of Dvorak's New World Symphony to two of my favorite jazz pieces: Manteca and Caravan. Manteca is still stuck in my head, and I don't mind. All the music was arranged by J.D. Shaw, who plays the french horn. I'd never thought of the french horn as a jazz instrument before, in fact, I'd never been a huge fan of it; but Shaw was no question the best of the five. I've never heard that instrument played so well. Andrew Hitz was awesome on the tuba as well; they played a funk piece, and he did an incredible bassline. I was only a bit disappointed, because Lance, the Trombone player, wasn't featured as much as I would have liked. I like to see my instrument dominate, but since the music was so good, it was alright.

Unfortunately, there's not much to offer on YouTube for Boston Brass, but I found a few decent videos. They don't come close to doing the band justice, but I'll share them anyway. If you only listen to one, make it Caravan by Duke Ellington.

Danza Final:

Largo from New World Symphony:

Caravan: