TIFTON— Scintillating sounds ranging from the marches of John Philip Sousa to the soulful tunes of Charlie Parker will sweep over the audience like a warm autumn sun on Nov. 15 when the ABAC Concert Band and the ABAC Jazz Ensemble present a joint concert beginning at 7 p.m. in Howard Auditorium on the campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.
The 40-member Concert Band, which now includes several community members from the South Georgia area, will be directed by Deborah Bradley. Dr. Andrew Peal, Assistant Professor of Jazz and Music Theory, directs the jazz band. The concert is open to the public at no charge.
Bradley said the Concert Band will open the evening with Sousa-style selections dedicated to all veterans.
“The program will open just the way John Philip Sousa would have done so in the 1920s when he became America’s ‘March King,’” Bradley said. “After a classical piece, the band will welcome Guest Conductor Don Coates, founder of the ABAC Band program. He will conduct a Sousa march, ‘The Belle of Chicago,’ written in 1892 for a World’s Fair performance in Chicago.”
Bradley said a special treat for the evening will occur when Donald Davis, Executive Director of the Lowndes County Historic Society and Museum, will bring to the stage an authentic Sousa Band uniform worn by Sousa’s first trombonist, Lester Grey. The uniform was used on the Sousa Band tour from 1919-25. Grey lived for a short time in Lowndes County.
A special selection called “Bamboo Warrior” will be conducted by Christina Huss, the composer of the piece. Huss is a popular composer hitting the publishing scene after a full career of teaching band in several South Georgia schools.
Fitzgerald High School Band Director Jonathan Thurston, who is a member of the Air National Guard Band of the South, will be the guest solo artist. He will perform the classic solo theme from the movie, “The Man with the Horn.”
Bradley will then conduct selections from “The Polar Express.” The music is from the original film score featuring “Believe” and “Spirit of the Seasons.”
Sousa’s outstanding military march, “The Gallant Seventh,” with perhaps a short strain of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” will serve as a grand finale to the concert band’s portion of the evening.
When Peal and the jazz band hit the stage, their music will spotlight songs that were written or frequently performed by Charlie Parker, one of the world’s most influential alto saxophonists.
Peal said the jazz band numbers will include Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce” and “Little Suede Shoes,” as well as “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin’s “Summertime.”
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