Something you may not know about me is I used to be in the band. I quit after my sophomore year in high school. Of course it’s kinda different in a small town, because if you don’t go out for everything, there won’t be any extra curricular activities, so you’re kinda forced into doing everything. But I had a very interesting career as a trumpeter. Starting in the 5th grade, I averaged one band teacher per year. I guess we were a little hard on ‘em. The first one got cancer and had to retire. The next ones gave up music all together after a year, and in one case, part of a semester, with us. I don’t understand it though, I mean, we weren’t that bad. Were we? I’ll let you, the informed music reviewer that you are, decide if we were hard on band teachers. Now, as a teacher of an extra curricular activity, I’m sure you would want dedicated students who go above and beyond the call of duty to improve, something like spending the summer at band camp. But we never had anyone go to those, well, except for this one redhead that played the flute. (Wait, that’s the movie American Pie, forget that last part) As mentioned above, I played the trumpet. Ah the trumpet, know far and wide for it’s ability to blare across the country side and throughout football stadiums. At least that’s what we thought, so three of us and a couple of the trombones tried to see who could blare the loudest during practices in the band room. Now the band teacher would try to tell us that a concert band doesn’t require blaring to that level, but we knew better and didn’t want him to look bad during basketball and football games, so we went right on blaring, the trumpets on the right side of the room and the trombones on the left side of the room. I wonder why our clarinet section never could hear for the next two periods after band? I guess we’ll never know. Just chalk it up to one of those quirks in the universe. You know, quirks like how can Jerry Springer keep coming up with new rednecks for his show all the time. Just something we’ll never figure out I guess. If you’re familiar with the “band” process, you know that there are tryouts for different parts that are divided into “chairs.” For the trumpets, we had first, second, third chairs and so on, till you came to last chair. And there would be tryouts throughout the year to see where you belonged in the band hierarchy. I’m not to sure about this pressure driven activity where you are branded by where you sit based on something as arbitrary as “your performance.” But again, our three trumpet amigos put in our best efforts and all tried out for last chair. It was always a tough competition to see who could be last. One time I had to skip over 5 bars just to get the last chair. The others said I cheated, but I just think I was doing whatever it took to get ahead, or I guess in this case, all the way in the back. So yeah, I guess you could say that we took our band playing seriously. Another guy that obviously took his band seriously is the flugelhorn styling of none other than Chuck Mangione.
I must admit, I had no idea who this “Chuck Mangione” was, till he came on several King of the Hill episodes. If you are a fan of KOTH, what am I saying of course you are ‘cause everyone’s a fan, you have heard Chuck and his hit song Feels So Good. He’s made several appearances, from almost being blown up, to living in the Mega-Lo Mart, to going through anger management classes, to selling feminine products. But before his career as a KOTH extra, he has had (and still does for that matter) a great career as a pop-jazz musician. Now, this is not the normal music I review, and honestly, if wasn’t for his interaction with Hank and the boys, I probably wouldn’t be reviewing it now. But, just like me and last chair in the trumpet section, here we are. If you are looking for some good music to relax to, I highly suggest this CD. Most of his songs don’t have lyrics, although some do. One that does is Land of Make Believe that is performed with the help of the Hamilton Ontario Philharmonic. One thing that I’ve never figured out about his music is how he comes up with the names for his songs. Since they don’t have lyrics, the names of the songs are highly subjective. Take the first song Journey to a Rainbow. The title reminds me of something that Hank would say before shooting a gun. But it doesn’t sound like that. He has a great mix on this CD, from some that have a funk sort of feel, to soft jazz, up beat songs to slower, and even songs that sound like they were played on nighttime soap operas in the early ‘80’s. Of course the highlight, and last song on the CD is Feels So Good. His biggest hit, and a great song by any standards. I dare you to not listen to this song and not feel so good after listening to. If you’re looking for a CD to wind down to after a long day at the paper mill, this is just the one for you.
So, what have we learned today:
- I was a band geek, well sort of
- Chuck is a dual threat, in music and TV
- And Arlen is ready to soft rock.
I’ll give this CD 3 out of 5 deaf clarinet players.
“I’m not a chick, I’m a dude.”