Brass, Reeds, and Percussion

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion opens with Vince Giordano and His Nighthawks performing the 1917 hit “Back Home in Indiana.” The song regularly opens the Indianapolis 500. The music was written by James Hanley, who was born in Rensselaer, Indiana, in 1892. After serving in WW I, he went on to become a vaudeville accompanist and to write songs for Broadway and movies. The words were written by Ballard MacDonald, born in Portland Oregon in 1882. He wrote the lyrics for other popular songs and for Broadway productions.

Japanese drums, klezmer, hot jazz from the 1920s, and traditional marches: they all can be heard on this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion.

In 1953, much popular music was wind-band music. That's certainly the case with the big Christmas hit of 1953: "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." After all, the song even has a bassoon solo. Gayla Peevy was only 10 years old when she sang the song on the Ed Sullivan Show. It's popularity even inspired a movement to actually get Peevy a hippopotamus for Christmas. After receiving the hippo, Peevy donated it the local Oklahoma City Zoo, where the hippo lived for the next 50 years. The song has been revived and recorded at least seven more times.

This edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion tells the story of “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” and the trumpet player who sang it. In 1944, Donald Gardner was teaching music in the public schools of Smithtown, New York. He asked his second-grade class what they wanted for Christmas and noticed that almost all of them answered with a lisp because they were missing at least one front tooth.

Today’s edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion features two jazz standards by Juan Tizol: “Caravan” and “Perdido.” Juan Tizol was born in Puerto Rico in 1900. In 1920, he stowed away on a ship to get to Washington, D.C., where he played his trombone to accompany silent movies. Then he met Duke Ellington and became a member of his band. He was the person who copied out many of the parts for the other musicians to play. But he also composed and brought Latin music influences into the Ellington band.

With this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion, we will begin airing recordings of music from the 1920s made by Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. We’ll hear two recordings from his Quality Shout album. To record the album, musicians listened to original recordings from the 1920s and wrote down the parts for the instruments as they played. The objective was to record a modern version of the songs with up-to-date digital equipment.

The shawm is the predecessor of the oboe. While most of Europe transitioned from shawms to oboes around 1700, the shawm has remained alive an well in Catalonia, Spain. The oboe has a more mellow sound; the Catalan shawm is louder and more piercing.

Robert Jager was born in 1939 in Binghamton, New York. Eventually he became the band director at Tennessee Technical University in Cookeville, Tennessee. Jager is a composer, music theorist, and conductor. His works are played throughout the world by various orchestras, bands, choruses, and chamber ensembles. From 1962 to 1965, he was arranger and composer for the U.S. Navy Armed Forces School of Music.

True brass bands have only brass instruments and percussion. No woodwinds. They got their start as a means of providing recreation for factory workers in Great Britain. Hence, the name of today’s first band to be heard: the Black Dyke Mills Band. One of the great British brass band composers is George Allan, who lived from 1864 to 1930. As a child, he started singing in the church choir, but the choir master suggested he join the town band to further his musical education.

In recognition of the arrival of marching band season, otherwise known as football season, Brass, Reeds, and Percussion begins today’s edition with “Jamboree Jones,” a ballad written by Johnny Mercer. Mercer was born in 1909 in Savannah, Georgia, and is famous as a Tin-Pin Alley composer and lyricist. He composed over 1500 songs and received 19 Academy Award nominations. He won four Academy Awards for Best Original Song.