Fountain City Band

World of Brass Concert
Guests: Govan Citadel Songsters
Conductors: Dr. Joseph Parisi; Songster Leader Chic Ramsay
Sherbrooke St. Gilberts Church, Glasgow
Monday 16th November

On an evening hosted by Govan Citadel Band & World of Brass,  Fountain City Brass Band from Kansas, USA joined in concert with Govan Citadel Songsters of The Salvation Army.

The band is currently on a month long tour of the UK and in the two days before the concert shared a programme with the Black Dyke Band & Cory Band and competed in the Brass in Concert Championships in Gateshead.

Great start

The evening got off to a great start with the Songsters, under the leadership of Chic Ramsay, singing ‘From the First Hallelujah to the Last Amen’ and ‘The Christian Mission’, of which the huge final chord rang out in the beautiful acoustic of the Sherbrooke St. Gilberts Church.

Major Derek Tyrrell then introduced the band and their conductor, Dr. Joseph Parisi and they opened their programme with ‘Introduction’ based on a theme by Shostakovich and arranged for the band by their Principal Euphonium, Lee Harrelson. 

The band created a large, full sound and it was obvious from this item that the audience was in for an excellent evening.

Complete

No brass band concert is complete without the playing of a march and this was no different as Fountain City launched into ‘O.R.B’ by Charles Anderson. The band is the only American band to have competed at Whit Friday and this British-style march would not have been out of place at that competition. 

The dynamic contrasts were excellent and the march allowed Andrew Schwartz on Bass Trombone to show off his impressive sound.

The Band then changed their style completely and brought some authentic American swing in Gershwin’s ‘Foggy Day.’, a song revitalised by Canadian crooner Michael Buble and arranged for the band by Lee Harrelson. This reviewer has never heard better swing playing from a brass band!

Oustanding

The trumpets were outstanding and the band was driven by excellent percussion which was a necessity as Joseph Parisi had stepped to one side for this one to leave the band conductor-less! Superb stuff!

The first soloist for the evening was TJ Menges on Tenor Horn. His full sound and technical dexterity were very impressive in Kenneth Downie’s ‘The Piper o’ Dundee.’ 

Written for Sheona White, the solo calls for a lot of playing in the upper register yet the soloist never seemed to break sweat and was backed by a sympathetic accompaniment from the band which never overshadowed his playing.

Leonard Ballantine’s arrangement of Shenandoah, ‘Mid All the Traffic’ was given a sensitive and emotive reading by the band under the leadership of Mark Norman who is a member of the excellent bass section and also the Director of Bands and Professor of Tuba & Euphonium at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

Nice link

This was a nice link between the band and The Salvation Army as the piece is written by an SA composer and published by the Army and the song Shenandoah references the Missouri River which separates Missouri and the band’s home in Kansas.

It was then the turn of the Songsters again who presented the bright and lively ‘Praise His Holy Name’  which was followed by a beautiful arrangement of ‘My Life Must Be Christ’s Broken Bread.’ The Church was cloaked in an appreciative silence following the sonorous final bars of the song.

Cornet feature

The cornet feature ‘Hora Staccato’  was excellently presented with the cornets standing at either side of the band and facing the audience. The playing was of an extremely high standard and taken at a rapid tempo and it’s no surprise that this was one of the items featured by the band in their US Open winning programme on 24th October.

The band concluded the first half of the programme with ‘The Gael’ from ‘The Last of the Mohicans.’ This exciting and evocative piece of film music brought the first half to a close in considerable style. The percussion section drove the piece forward to a stunning climax. 

Swing

After the interval the band reverted back to swing in ‘Feelin Good.’  Solo Euphonium Lee Harrelson opened the piece on his own before wandering off stage for a break and leaving his fellow band members to present another excellent example of a brass band doing swing.

This is certainly the style that brings out the best in the band. Matthew Vangjel on Flugel horn showed why he had won the Brass in Concert Best Flugel Award the previous day with some sublime melodic playing but it was the trumpets who stole the limelight again with some top notch playing that went into the stratosphere!

Excellent arrangement

Lee Harrelson is the band’s founder and also their chief arranger. Many of his excellent arrangements were featured during the evening but it was his solo contribution which showed off one of his other talents – performing.

 ‘A Little Prayer’ was written by Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie (and arranged for Euphonium by Robert Childs) and has been performed regularly in recent times by Gareth Brindle, Principal Baritone of the Black Dyke Band. Harrelson’s performance was outstanding. His warm sound was backed by musicality of the highest quality.

Senistive accompaniment

The band’s sensitive accompaniment allowed every note of the solo line to be heard even when the soloist played at a quieter dynamic.

Lee Harrelson then introduced the band’s next soloist, their appropriately named principal percussionist, Theo Musick.  The audience was informed that the band has an in-house soloist competition every year and their soloist for the US Open is chosen from that competition. Theo Musick’s performance of ‘Xylophonia’ by Joe Green showed why he was chosen to represent the band at the US Open and why he won the Soloist prize at the same contest.

Not only did he play the xylophone but also featured various other percussive items including a duck call! A misplaced attempt at comedy from the soloist and conductor did nothing to detract from the quality of the performance. 

Contribution

Govan Songsters then took to the stage once more and featured vocal soloist Matt Ramsay in the thought provoking ‘Arms Open Wide’ before concluding their contribution to the evening with the statement in song ‘We Preach Christ.’

Lee Harrelson joked that the band’s next item might not go down well after the Songsters fine contribution but the Gregorian chanting from a number of the band was well-balanced and extremely tuneful and led into the beautiful Euphonium & Baritone feature ‘Ave Maria’.

Again arranged by Lee, this item was featured as part of the band’s programme at Brass in Concert. Although this reviewer was not familiar with this arrangement, the lyrical quality of the playing was evident from the first bar and I for one was thankful that this item was part of the band’s programme for the evening.

Barnstormer

The band’s barnstormer of a finisher was Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Little Russian.’ After the opening bars, the piece was taken at a swift tempo but there was good attention to detail and pulsating rhythm from the lower end of the band. Special mention must be made of Ryan Sharp on Soprano Cornet who was on scintillating form all evening.

I never heard a split note from him all night and in conversation after the concert he said he was ‘just enjoying himself.’

He certainly was, and so was the audience!

Standing ovation

Following a prolonged standing ovation from the audience there was just enough time for the band to present a tribute to their home in the lively ‘Kansas City’ (by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, arr. Schutza)

That concluded an excellent evening featuring a band on great form that presented a varied and interesting programme that had something for everyone.

Credit is due to Dr. Joseph Parisi for his choice of repertoire and stylish leadership and to Lee Harrelson for his excellent arrangements. I for one hope that this is not the last opportunity I get to hear this wonderful band in concert.

Fraser Ramsay

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