Keystone Wind News Today

This is the St. Patrick’s Day edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion and features Irish music. We open with and Irish tune that is the official march of the U.S. First Cavalry Division: \“The Gary Owen March.\” The tune was the favorite of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, sometimes referred to as General Custer, who was the commander of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. During one battle in 1874, Col. Custer ordered the 7th Cavalry mounted band to perform the march while leading his soldier...

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 mu...

In preparing for the Veterans Day edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion, I wanted to air one of the most popular songs of the WW II period to salute our veterans: \“The St. Louis Blues March.\” But I also wanted to make sure you heard what the original version of the \“St. Louis Blues\”sounded like. So we aired a 1922 version, with W. C. Handy himself playing the cornet. Today, we are going to air a version of the same arrangement made with modern recording equipment and contemporary m...

Mysterious and macabre and reflective of mortality—that’s the type of music for this edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion because it’s the Halloween edition.In 1936, before a concert to be broadcast on radio, Artie Shaw needed a theme tune. Theme tunes were important because they helped to indentify a big band. In short, having a theme tune was part of big-band marketing. Many big bands simply chose a song from Tin Pan Alley, but Shaw decided to write his own and to make it truly unique...