Production Notes: New Groove for Walnut Creek Concert Band

"What's New" is a great jazz tune made famous by Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. I love the opening line: "What's new?  How is the world treating you?" 

Those great lyrics were written  in 1937 by Johnny Burke, who was born and spent his childhood in Antioch. His work will get a nod Monday when the Walnut Creek Concert Band presents a "what's new" concert called "Winds of Change."

The band will play four modern selections from classic band literature at the Lesher Center for the Arts.  The group is asking for contributions to commission a major work from a recognized composer so it can continue adding new music to its repertoire.

The same year "What's New" was written by our neighbor from Antioch, an Australian named Percy Aldridge Grainger completed a suite of music for concert bands — "Lincolnshire Posy" — based on English folk tunes. 

The piece was paid for and commissioned by the American Bandmaster's Association. It is 16 minutes long and considered a masterpiece. It was first performed by a group of "pick-up" musicians from several bands in the Milwaukee area, including players from the Blatz Brewery and the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Factory Bands.  

Grainger, like John Phillip Sousa, spent time in a military band, playing oboe with the Army Band. Sousa conducted more than 16,000 concerts during his career. 

In his day, crowds of up to 20,000 attended outdoor concerts. You will hear Sousa marches at the Winds of Change concert. As a brass player, I am always amazed when I come across another Sousa march I haven't heard before. He created an original American music style in the same way jazz became an American art form.

Gustave Holst was a contemporary of Sousa and Grainger who lived and composed in England. He is famous for his symphonic compositions "The Planets," but he also wrote for band and his two military suites are a staple of band literature.

The Walnut Creek Concert Band will perform Holst's "Second Suite in F," which contains a march, a lament, the sound of a blacksmith's anvil and a dance tune. Like Granger, Holst called upon folk tunes for themes and inspiration. 

"Armenian Dances" by Alfred Reed, who attended Julliard and was an arranger for the NBC and ABC orchestras, also will be be played. It, too, uses folk melodies as well as the rhythm and chord structures assigned to more modern music. 

Reed was a great believer in music as part of public education. He said music education built "professional audiences...who will not give up the thrill of being there in the flesh when the music is literally re-creating itself inside you, live!" 

Rounding out the concert will be "Symphony for Band" by Vincent Persichetti. He is considered among the greatest of modern composers. He was a musical genius from Philadelphia, where he attended public school and played the tuba and other instruments. The tuba is prominent in "Symphony for Band" and drives the music along with intricate percussion features. 

Maestro Harvey Bernstein and Assistant Conductor G. Mancho Gonzalez are leading a program of intensely grand and inspiring music that covers a satisfying spectrum of emotion. The musicians look forward to sharing it with you, their always appreciative audience.   

The Walnut Creek Concert Band performs Winds of Change on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts. For tickets and information, call 925-943-7460 or visit www.lesherartscenter.org.