The Curtain Closes on Another (Last) Music Season

Crappy photos by Evan Brandt

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs at the school's Instrumental Spring Recital Thursday.

Yes, I know.

I said these videos and photos would be posted Saturday and its Sunday. Turns out there are only 24 hours in a day.

Besides, now you get the added advantage of videos of the Pottsgrove High School Jazz Band performing at the Cavalcade of Bands Jazz Championships in Chichester Friday as a bonus.

Senior Kyke Kratzer, who I am now told will pursue a career
in music technology at Millersville, NOT music education,
thanks Pottstown Band Director Mike Vought for four years
of fun and music.

(I did not shoot videos of Pottstown because I shot them at the spring concert the day before.)

As the father of a senior, and many of you out there know what I mean, Spring is a season of "lasts." The "last spring concert," the "last jazz band championships," the "last time I yell at you for sleeping too late."

You know how it goes.

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs
at the Championships at Chichester High School.

It seems that it tends to take on extra weight with the seniors, who are looking ahead to new horizons.

For teachers, it seems to be the end of a cycle they have experienced time and time again.

For parents, it is a milepost we will never pass again and one which inevitably has us looking backward.

But I will spare you those reflections. You're here to see videos. So here they are:

Pottstown Senior Casey Mest performs his solo on 

baritone sax at the Jazz Championships.

Herein you will find four of the five tunes played by the Pottstown High School Jazz Band during the spring concert and two of the four compositions played by the Concert Band.

I'm afraid my phone does not have enough space to have recorded performances by the clarinet and flute ensembles. (Sorry Mrs. Mest.)

The Pottstown High School Concert Band stands at the end of their concert Thursday.

You will also find three tunes performed by the Pottsgrove Jazz Band at the championships, which, by the way, stretched on until midnight and I did not stay to see final results.

 (Although I do know senior Kyle Kratzer won yet another solo award and Pottstown earned a rating of "Outstanding. And Pottsgrove earned a "Superior" rating although I do not know if they received, or any other awards. If you know, please email me at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com and I will add them to this post.)

Anyway, TO THE VIDEOS!



Next up was a new number: "Hurricane Season:"



Followed by "West Coast Blues:"



The Jazz Banded ended with "Hit the Bricks:"


Then the Concert Band came out and played four numbers. Here is the third:


And, as they traditionally do, the Concert Band ended the night with a salute to the five armed services, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.



And now, on to the Cavalcade Championships and Pottsgrove's performance at Chichester which, I must say, is a terribly inconvenient place to get to from Pottstown.

The Pottsgrove High School Jazz Band stands at the end of their performance in Chichester.

They followed with the obligatory slow number:

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And finally, the big finish!



The Pottstown concert season may be over, but the Pottsgrove season is just getting started.

Here are the dates and locations:

• 5/2/17 - High School & Middle School Orchestra Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School
• 5/4/17 - Middle School Band & Handbell Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/8/17 - Elementary Beginning and Advanced Orchestra Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/11/17 - High School Band Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School
• 5/13/17 - Lower Pottsgrove Elementary Art Show & 5th Grade Musical @ 7:30 pm 
• 5/15/17 - Lower Pottsgrove Elementary Beginning & Advanced Band Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/18/17 - Middle School Choral Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/24/17 - High School Choral Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School

And so another music season goes by the boards and the seniors head off to their next chapter.

I will confess that without having a child in the schools, I cannot guarantee I will continue to perform this service, particularly as it costs money because I ain't paid to do it and each performances has an admission fee.

Hopefully others will share their videos with me, in which case I would be more than happy to share them with you.

More Cowbell With Your Concert Sir?

If Christopher Walken wasn't present for this year's Pottstown High School Spring Concert, he was at least there in spirit.

To get that joke, you need to be familiar with the infamous Saturday Night Live skit in which Will Ferrell plays an over-enthusiastic cowbell player at the recording session of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper."

No matter how over the top he gets (not including how his stomach is over the top of his pants), producer Christopher Walken wants more -- as in "I've the fever, and the prescription is more cowbell!"

And to understand why you're reading about this in a blog post about Pottstown High School's spring concert, you need to know that Director Michael Vought gave the band some freedom this year to have input into the program -- and that's what they came up with.

As the band played a medley of "Don't Fear the Reaper," "Tequila" and "Oye Como Va," some members armed with cowbells did what cowbell players do best.

The Jazz Band added a new number to their repertoire,

Trombone Shorty's "Buck Jump."

But that was at the end.

Before we got to any of those shenanigans, we heard first from the Jazz Band, which added a new number to their repertoire, as well as from a spin-off of the Jazz Band, a trio who call themselves "The Gentlemen."

They are comprised of trombonist Kyle Kratzer, baritone saxophonist Casey Mest and guitarist Gary Oberholtzer. As is evident in the video below, it is definitely something different.

The Pottstown High School Flute Ensemble

Then veteran music educator Nancy Mest took the stage with her flute and clarinet ensembles, students she has taught since they were wee little musicians.

After a nice intermission, we came to the main event, which was the full concert band, which played five numbers, the last of which featured quite a bit of cowbell.

The Pottstown High School Concert Band

Another example of input from the students was the selection of the theme from
"Avengers: Age of Ultron," just in time for the release of the next Captain America movie.

For extra authenticity, some of the low brass donned masks and helmets that Tony Stark would have been proud to call his own.

Senior Awards await presenting.

Before closing out with said cowbell feature, and an impromptu and spirited rendition of the marching band anthem, "Horse" -- which had the band members spelling out "Trojans" at the top of their lungs -- there were the senior awards.

And without further ado, we present the Tweets (and some cowbell).

Tis the Season for Spring Concerts

The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra during the Holiday concert, director Will Einhorn.

Like the flowers, the April showers and tree pollen, spring brings many things.

And one of the more enjoyable of them are school district spring concerts.

With a son in the band and jazz band at Pottstown High School, I attended the spring concert on Tuesday, April 29.

But before we get to videos from that performance, a note from Will Einhorn, director of the

The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra performed at the
Coventry Mall over the holidays.

orchestra at Pottsgrove Middle School:

I would like to cordially invite you to The Pottsgrove Middle School Orchestra's Spring Concert next Wednesday May 7th. 

This concert will be taking place at 7:30 p.m/ in the PGMS Auditorium.

Our concert will feature a wide variety of classical, show tunes, and pop music. 

Some of those selections include "Over the Rainbow" from Wizard of Oz, and "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. 

This year the orchestra is at 70 members which is the largest group we have had in many years and next year we are projecting 80-85 members. 

This is not possible without your continuous support of the music program. The students and I thank you for this and all that you do and would love to see you there if possible.

Indeed, the music program in the Pottsgrove School District is growing by leaps and bounds -- so much so that one of the major aspects of the $28 million high school renovation is to expand space for music programs.

And if you would like to hear how they sound, here is a video of their performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, presumably from the Holiday Concert in December.




As for Pottstown's concert, I was happy to be able to enjoy some of the Concert Choir and Show Choir performances, which I don't often get to see.

Here is a segment of the Concert Choir singing "Abraham, Martin and John."



And here is their final number, "Shenandoah," a personal favorite of mine.



In the intervening time, the Flute and Clarinet ensembles played, but without their beloved director, Nancy Mest, who broke her arm and is recovering from surgery, so I sent her a shout-out.:




The concert band played something unusual, a Native American-inspired piece named "Songs of Earth, Water, Fire and Sky," which featured Pottstown School Board member Ron Williams, who is part Apache, in Native American dress reading a creation myth narrative while the band played.

Here is how it began:



Then the Concert Band fulfilled a long-expressed wish of Public Relations Coordinator John Armato, by playing a medley of Blues Brothers tunes. (But John missed the performance. Lucky for him, it is one of the few performances I recorded in its entirety. You're welcome John.)




The Show Choir, which dances (who knew?), then did an old Jackson 5 number:




Which was followed by a surprise performance by James Rodgers, Nicholas Parsons, Randy Mercado and Dylan Mauger, the male members of the Show Choir, who sang "Just My Imagination."




Finally, my old favorite, the Pottstown Jazz Band took the spotlight and debuted a new song, "Zoot Suit Riot," which I have posted in full here, given that it is a new number.