To celebrate Mardi Gras and Black History Month, this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion features remastered Dixieland recordings from the 1920s and 1930s. Robert Parker, an Australian sound engineer, has processed and remastered a number of old 78-rpm recordings so that they almost sound like modern recordings. Regardless, the fidelity is tremendously improved. We will have a number of selections from his compact disc entitled “New Orleans: Jazz Classics in Digital Stereo.” Today, you will hear at least two original recordings by the 1930s reincarnation of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, one of the few jazz bands known by their initials: N.O.R.K. The other is the Original Dixieland Jazz Band: O.D.J.B.

Wind-band march music before Sousa is featured on this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion. Before John Philip Sousa, there were American composers who lead popular wind bands and composed exciting marches. John Philip Sousa called David Wallis Reeves the father of band music in America. He also said he wished he had written the opening march for this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion; namely, “The Second Connecticut Regiment March.” Reeves added the countermelody to the American march. He was born in Oswego, New York, and became a member ofthe Oswego town band playing the alto horn. He later switched to cornet, the instrument that made him famous. He was the conductor of a number of different bands in New York and Rhode Island. By the time of his death, he had composed over 100 pieces.

Frantisek Kmoch (pronounced MOHSH) was a Czech composer who lived from 1848 to 1912. During this period, what is now called the Czech Republic was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the lifetime of Kmoch, the Czechs began to develop a sense of national pride and wanted to rule their own country. By composing music based on Czech folk tunes, Kmoch raised Czech national consciousness. In Koline, he started a wind band , which extensively toured Europe performing Czech music. Kmoch is credited with collecting and saving at least 105 Czech folks tunes. Today’s edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion features one of these: “Safarova’s Parakeet” This song implores the parakeet to chase the geese out of the barley field.

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with a march that I recently heard played for the Arcadia, California, Band Review. Apparently, as part of the requirements for participating in this parade marching contest, traditional marches must be performed. So this edition opens with one of the great American marches: "Emblem of Unity" by John Joseph Richards, a Welsh born composer who grew up in Kansas. He started playing alto horn and cornet at age 10, but was the director of a circus band by age 19. In addition to conducting the Norton-Jones Circus Band, he also conducted the Barnum and Bailey Circus Band and the Ringling Brothers Circus Band before the two circuses merged.

Continuing the exploration of how popular music is often wind-band music, this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion features music of a big band called “a thundering herd” instead of an orchestra. Before being a musician or bandleader, Woody Herman was a vaudeville performer billed as “The Boy Wonder.” He began playing his clarinet in a band at age 13 and doubled on saxophones. In 1934, he joined the Isham Jones Orchestra and added singing to his musical activities. In 1936, he formed his first band called the Band That Plays the Blues. Probably because of the rhythmic drive of the band’s playing, a music critic started to refer to the band as Woody Herman’s Herd. The band reached the height of its popularity during WW II, during which time the name of the band morphed into Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd. We open today’s edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion with one of his hits from that WWII period: “Goosey Gander.”

Wind-band music has a long history of being popular music. So this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with a big hit from 1936: “The Whistler’s Mother-in-Law.” This song was written by Larry Wagner, a trumpet player and big-band arranger born in 1907 in Ashland, Oregon. After graduating from high school, Wagner attended the University of Oregon to major in journalism, but dropped out to play in a big band in the northwest. During this period, he took a correspondence course in arranging. Eventually, he moved to New York City and worked with Paul Whiteman and Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra.

In terms of popular music, the swing era is generally considered to be from 1936 to 1946. During this time, big bands were popular. Today’s edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion takes its annual visit to the cha cha palace, but with a focus on swing dance music. The show opens with a 1932 song which is said to have started swing: “The Moten Swing.” Bennie Moten wrote the tune, which is now considered a jazz standard. He and his Kansas City Orchestra recorded it in 1932, with Count Basie playing piano. But Benny Goodman’s 1938 recording made it popular. This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with the “Moten Swing” recorded by Les Brown and His Band of Renown.

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion, features Christmas wind band music, both secular and religious. One of the featured tunes is “Greensleeves,” probably the oldest song that musicologists have been able to identify. You will also hear a Christmas song that holds the record for taking the longest for a recording to make it to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. But since it is still Advent, Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with two Advent hymns. The words for the first hymn, “Lo, He Comes in Clouds Descending,” were written by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism; the music was written by Martin Madan, a lawyer converted to Methodism upon hearing one of Wesley’s sermons.

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion focuses on music involving Christmas and drums, but begins with Advent music from a German theologian and composer Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, who lived from 1670 to 1739. He was a pietest and ran homes for orphans. He wrote 44 hymns and published a hymnal entitled “Spiritual Songbook” that included 1500 new and old hymns. Today’s opening composition is the Advent hymn “Fling Wide the Door,” also known as “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates.” The original German words were written by Georg Weissel in 1623. Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with a recording by the Ulmer Brass and Woodwind Ensemble.

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion features holiday music, especially klezmer in recognition of Hanukkah, which starts December 7 and ends December 15. We’ll begin with an Advent hymn and then a medley of Christams tunes. But most of the show will be klezmer, the traditional instrumental music of the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. Klezmer includes traditional dance tunes and ritual melodies, all enhanced by improvisation. In addition to Jewish religious music, it incorporates music from the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Romania, Germany, and the Slavic communities. Elements of Klezmer have been adopted into Dixieland, big band music, popular music, and jazz.