HECTOR SANTANA MHIS 013 4 - 20 - 2011

Well Arenʼt I Just A Little Ray Of Sunshine?!

On April 17 I decided to review what turned out to be a most entertaining recital- an hour
and a half of music(al theatre) put on by the Foothills Brass Quintet.

" Coming in a minute or two before the show commenced I got enough time to see
that the house was filled generously with pretentious white haired conservatives and
almost as pretentious young music students. Putting my cynicism aside I got myself to
read the program notes, which were complete with quirky footnotes including this one
explaining “Opera funnia”; “contrast this with opera seria, which is performed in weekly
episodes”. The group is from Calgary. Despite each member (minus the tubist) holding a
bachelor of music degree, the difficulty of their repertoire was not more than slightly dif-
ficult for the typical brass performance major. All skepticism aside- the group did memo-
rize their entire set.

" The program was not split in the typical early-to-recent chronological fashion, in-
stead it was fashioned to showcase particular styles, namely a section for the Baroque,
music from Latin America, operaʼs greatest hits, spaghetti-western music, and what they
defined as “ragtime”, despite playing other New Orleans styles like Dixieland. By the
programming alone I could tell the ensemble was aiming to please the audience, and
they would end up being able to do so if they could hold all their artistic abilities to-
gether.

" Not surprisingly, the Baroque section consisted of a Handel, the overture to
Royal Fireworks Music, and the “Little Fugue in G Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Foothills Brass quickly penetrated the red curtain dividing them between them selves
and the audience, leading to a quick, pushing performance of the Handel, which fea-
tured Chris Morrison on piccolo trumpet. I was first surprised that the group didnʼt sit
down; instead the tuba player sat while the others were positioned around them. Follow-
ing this rousing movement, trumpet player Jay Michalak gave the first in many interac-
tions with the audience, giving comic relief, giving some background on these two
pieces. The Bach fugue introduced another seating arrangement with the trumpeters
standing on the outside. Chris Morrison gave the next comic introduction, saying some-
thing politically incorrect about Latin America (probably). After the snappy, fiery, “El Gato
Montes” by Manuel Penella, I remember thinking I was in for a very short program- as at
fourteen minutes in we were halfway through the first half of these “brassscapes” (a
prediction I would later find out attributed only to uneven proportioning of program mate-
rial). Trombonist Catey Hickey gave background to the next piece- the moving ballad,
“Adios Nonino”, giving light to the quintetʼs even balance and smooth lyrical playing ca-
pabilities. The next and final piece in the Latin bit, before which Bob Nicholson gave an
amusing tongue-in-cheek interpretation of jazz, are both tangos. “Libertango” featured
Cathy Hickey, who despite having a degree in jazz from the Eastman School of Music,
ʻimprovisedʼ a boring, mediocre solo reminiscent of something a student might have
written down to solo over a tango chorus.

" The “brass opera” started with one of my favorite opera selections - the ceremo-
nial overture/ dance from Aida that opens it. The group slowly brings their props on-
 HECTOR SANTANA MHIS 013 4 - 20 - 2011

stage, including a viking helmet reminiscent of the kind Richard Wagner might have
used in his Ring Cycle operas. The group wrote bizarre program notes detailing the
events of their opera. The next spectacle was choreography to a drinking song from La
Travviata, during which hornist Joanna Schulz pretends to take a shot. I would have
preferred it if she really was loaded. Then was the “Torreador Song” from Georges
Bizetʼs Carmen. This is where I started to take note of the amusement that was being
had by others (mostly awkward jeerers). The second act begun with the flower duet
from Delibesʼ Lakme. The duet was between the trumpeters, who were wearing elastic
flower caps. After all this silliness, Bob Nicholson mentions that their plot is growing a
little thin (see excerpt)

" “Lakme, another of the factory workers, fetches sacred water to cleanse her jewelry that
she had left on the workbench, and when she discovers that the British have stolen it along with
her country, she overdoses and dies on hallucinogenic plant material”.

Next came a selection from Wolfgang Mozartʼs Die Zauberflote, featuring a fanfare that
Chris Morrison led, stopping for ten seconds on the leading tone in the final cadence..
By the performance of “The Ride of the Valkyries” I had come to the conclusion that this
was mostly spectacle, like a game show or some sitcom. Then the intermission set in
and I had moved away from this disillusionment by the time the second half had rolled
in.

" I was at first a little off-put by the phony southern accents the ensemble was us-
ing to depict western-ness- then they mentioned that Calgary is kind of western, being
home to rodeos and such. The three lower brass played this minimalist waltz piece that
I couldnʼt identify but was nevertheless moved by the extremely minimal musical mate-
rial. This went into a warming, strong rendition of Aaron Coplandʼs “Hoedown” from his
ballet Rodeo. Next, before they went into “La Virgen de la Macarena”, they called my for
a volunteer (who ended up being my classmate Jimmy Kraft) to the stage to shake a
maraca whenever Morrison asked him to. He did this all too well. Surprising, the group
covered “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Vassar Clements and Charlie Daniels,
was sung by Hickey in what was probably the best accent in onstage. The Western
Movie Spectacular had what any western film watcher might expect from a western
medley... a Sergio Leone (“The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, The Bad, and The
Ugly), and a bunch of selections I hadnʼt heard before, but they hadnʼt interested me
upon hearing them here. The duel ends with both trumpet players shooting each other,
thereafter dying- leading into an upbeat rendition of “Amazing Grace”. I wasnʼt really
amused. I had seen the spiritual number coming without even reading the program
ahead of time. Oddly, this section and the next were divided by a tuba solo - Fnugg by
Oystein Baadsvik. This was a very groovy rendition with the exception of a Deep Purple
tribute Mr. Nicholson added. I saw another performance of this piece about an hour later
at Adam Zavesʼ junior recital (I greatly preferred this Deep Purple-less rendition).

Basically Iʼve written over the limit my editor will allow me.. and cuz Iʼm so stubborn Iʼm
not gonna remove any of criticisms Iʼve written. To all my fellow immature juvenilia- have
a good day.