The Brass Band of Battle Creek: getting to the heart of the Yuletide
By David McGee
A CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL
Brass Band of Battle Creek
MSR Classics
A beloved institution in its home town of Battle Creek, Michigan, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, founded in 1989 and now some 31 members strong, plays to packed houses in the two annual concerts it presents there in addition to the sellout crowds it draws in select venues across the country. Doc Severinsen, who has appeared twice with the BBBC, says the band “represents the beginnings of a new music movement in America.” He didn’t specify what that movement entails, but the band’s two Christmas albums, 1996’s Sleigh Bells & Brass and the focus of this review, 2011’s A Christmas Festival, offer a strong hint at Doc’s rationale for his bold statement.
‘Motown Jingle Bells,’ Brass Band of Battle Creek, with soloists Rex Richardson (trumpet) and Wycliffe Gordon (trombone) from A Christmas Festival
‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ Brass Band of Battle Creek, with soloist Wycliffe Gordon (trombone) from A Christmas Festival
The inventiveness of the BBBC is an aural feast. Trombones, bass trombones, euphoniums, trumpets and percussion comprise the Christmas Festival lineup on an engaging 10-track program of mostly familiar sacred and secular fare, with the lone departure from the canon being a cool five-minute Motown-style workout on, appropriately, “Motown Jingle Bells,” a carol medley modeled on and interpolating some of the label’s signature recordings. This offering, arranged for the BBBC by Sam Pilafian, a distinguished professor of tuba and euphonium at Arizona State University, may have been inspired by the tack the Ventures took on their great Christmas album; that is, having a familiar pop melody morph into a Christmas tune, as the BBBC does in segueing from “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” into “Jingle Bells,” with trumpeter Rex Richardson, the lead voice on this track, dazzling the ears with a furious sortie into his instrument’s upper range. Indeed, Richardson and formidable trombonist Wycliffe Gordon have a riotous dialogue throughout most of the performance in one of the disc’s most entertaining interludes that illustrates, if nothing else, how nimbly the trombone, in virtuosic hands, can respond to the trumpet’s darting maneuvers. And somewhere Levi Stubbs is smiling.
‘O Holy Night,’ Brass Band of Battle Creek, with soloist Stephen Mead (euphonium) from A Christmas Festival
“Jingle Bells” isn’t Wycliffe Gordon’s only shining moment. In Chris Sharp’s wild arrangement of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which evolves from a lush, hushed opening refrain into a romping swing and salsa-inflected blowout, Gordon roars in towards the close with a rowdy, sputtering, growling solo to set up a finale romp through the main theme as the performance goes out with a collective blast. A similar adventurous spirit informs Sandy Smith’s arrangement of “Frosty the Snowman,” a live recording in which bass trombonist Mark Frost (apart from Santa Claus, could there be a more appropriate name for a participant in this project?) adds a frisky, low-end theme-and-variation solo, carving up the melody into shifting time signatures, his antics providing, on the whole, a bit of comic relief to a live performance that elicits laughter and hearty applause from an energized audience.
‘A Christmas Festival,’ a master class in precision musicianship mated to heartfelt performance as the big finish of the Brass Band of Battle Creek’s 2011 Yule album sporting Leroy Anderson’s seasonal classic as its title.
Yes, there are serious moments too, all beautifully handled. The layering of the horn parts in “Ukrainian Bell Carol” around the ostinato main theme heightens the carol’s inherent intensity. “O Holy Night” is nothing less than majestic in a quiet way, thanks to the gripping solemnity of euphonium soloist Steven Mead’s controlled, deeply interior rendering. Mead’s commanding reverence as the other horns swell around his, concluding with a solitary haunting note held to fadeout, ensures the soulful enterprise lingering in memory long after the track has ended.
And how fitting this program’s bookends, opening with “A Christmas Overture” setting the stage with an arrangement built on “Deck the Halls” but making multiple stylistic turns over the course of nearly three minutes including a blink-and-you-miss-it reference from Aaron Copland’s Hoedown and a taste of Stravinsky’s Firebird; and closing with a faithful rendering of a true holiday classic in Leroy Anderson’s “Christmas Festival.” It’s nothing less than a master class, this, in precision musicianship mated to spirited performance, the arrangement tight, the entrances and exits seamless and always texturally striking, as if in reverence to and respect for the gold standard recording by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, an enduring Yule monument. Well done, in all respects and for all seasons.
