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 Christmas With Sovereign Brass
Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. Homestead Community
Concerts opened its 2009-2010 season by presenting Christmas
with Sovereign Brass. Sovereign Brass was formed in 1994 and
continues bringing high quality brass music to Florida
audiences. Based in central Florida, its members also perform
with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Opera, World
Class at Disney's Epcot Center, the Walt Disney World Orchestra,
and other regional performing groups in the southeast. Other
credits for individual members include touring Broadway shows,
performances with the Woody Herman Orchestra, and recordings for
TV, radio and motion pictures. The group’s members include: Mike
Avila and Tom Macklin (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet),
Kathy Thomas (French Horn), Jeff Thomas (Trombone), Ed Firth
(Tuba), and Mark Goldberg (Percussion).
In talking to the group during their on-stage warm-up and again
backstage before the program it became evident that the members
were like a big family. They genuinely enjoyed playing and being
with each other. They all got their start in upper elementary
and Junior high school band programs. A few interesting tidbits:
Tom has a humor website (www..TomMacklin.com)
and Mark collects drums and other percussion instruments dating
from the 1920s to back before the Civil War. Just before curtain
time Ed inadvertently clicked the inside lock on the dressing
room and locked the men out. Their instruments were inside.
Ooops! Fortunately Tai Gilmore (S. Dade Sr. HS custodian) was
able to “jimmy” the lock with his magic screwdriver. One of the
group remarked that they have performed as far north as Georgia,
and now, as far south as Homestead. They chuckled a bit when
asked why so close to home and not farther away. The reason:
between the six of them there are sixteen young children and
teenagers! Enough said. Jeff told me his kids were the
motivation to leave his earlier traveling and start his own
group closer to home. The name Sovereign Brass was picked
because he wanted the group to represent something special.
Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “sovereign” as “…above or
superior to all others; greatest; excellent; outstanding…”. If
you were at the concert you would agree that they indeed were
something special.
The program opened with a John Wasson arranged medley of
traditional Christmas carols. Then they played: “Up on the
Housetop”, a mellow John Ryther arrangement of “O Christmas
Tree”, a unique minor and then major version of “Little Drummer
Boy”, “Fum, Fum, Fum” (the tuba player had fun with this piece),
a haunting and then rhythmically energetic “O Come, O Come,
Emmanuel”, a touch of swing and New Orleans jazz with “Frosty
the Snowman”, a set of variations on “Here We Come
a-Wassailing”, a beautiful and moving partner song of “Silent
Night” and “Away in a Manger”, and ended with a “we-gottcha” and
rhythmically “fooled-you” version of “Jingle Bells”. Jeff had
invited the audience to sing along and then the group played
some rhythmic and phrasing tricks on us. Between songs Jeff
talked to us, gave us some background on the music and the
player featured, teased us a bit, invited us to join in, told
secrets about a few of the members. The effect was that the
program had a relaxed pace and friendly audience-performer
interaction. The first half ended with an audience favorite
“Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy”
The second half was with their Tour of Duty program dedicated to
our armed forces both past and present. It should be noted that
everyone in the group comes from a family with a military
background. Tour of Duty started with a George M. Cohen medley
from his Broadway Shows including: “Give My Regards to
Broadway”, It’s a Grand Old Flag”, “Over There”, “I’m a Yankee
Doodle Dandy”, and began and ended with musical references to
“The Star-Spangled Banner”. This was followed by a WWII Glen
Miller piece entitled “American Patrol”. The next part of the
program was special! The medley included music from all the
branches of the service. Following Jeff’s invitation members of
the audience stood as “their song” was played. The audience sang
along and applauded each group as they stood. You got a lump in
your throat!
This was followed by theme songs from military TV shows. The
audience guessed with very few clues which show was going to be
played. The medley included the themes from Mash, Combat, F
Troop, Andy Griffith Show, Hogan’s Heroes, and Mc Hales Navy.
The program ended with a tango-ish “Cherry Blossoms Pink and
Apple Blossoms White”, “I’m Getting Sentimental over You”
(complete with Tommy Dorsey’s trademark trombone vibrato), and a
jitterbug version of “Sing, Sing, Sing”. During this last song
the group left the stage and the percussionist who, up to this
point had stayed beautifully “inside of the ensemble”, was given
center-stage to wow us with a several minute long Gene Krupa-like
solo.. “Sing, Sing, Sing” ended with a full ensemble bright
coda.
Needless to say the concert ended with a standing ovation. As an
encore Sovereign Brass accompanied the audience as they sang “We
Wish You a Merry Christmas”.
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