Glenn’s Trumpet Notes

On Sunday, 3 November (three days before John Philip Sousa’s 170th birthday), the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band (BSSB) performed again in his honor at Kenyon Hall in West Seattle. As usual at this annual event, informally called the “Sousa Bash,” the hall was full of Sousa fans. Revered as “The March King,” Sousa composed 136 marches between 1873 and 1932, when he died.

The band performed 13 pieces, including a “Happy Birthday” song written especially for Sousa by Gary Pedersen. Nine of the marches were written by Sousa, and two others were by Henry Fillmore and Alex F. Lithgow. Sousa wrote the march, “El Captain,” in 1895 for an operetta of the same name. So, Ms. Dreisbach passed out the lyrics, written by Charles Klein, and the band and audience sang them together. One line is particularly fun to sing up-tempo—“Behold El Capitan–Gaze on his misanthropic stare, Notice his penetrating glare.”

Everyone recognizes Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis,” “Washington Post” and “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which the band performed. But the band also played his “King Cotton,” “Fairest of the Fair,” “The Belle of Chicago,” “The Thunderer,” and “Black Horse Troop.”

As I did last year, I played with the baritone section, using my Austin Custom Brass (ACB) flugelhorn (please see my post of 9 November 2023, using the Archives column on the left). For fun, each band member wears his/her own unique uniform.

For more information about the “Sousa Bash” and Kenyon Hall, see my post of 11 November 2023. Please click on any photo to enlarge it. I invite you to “Like” and “Comment” on this post by clicking on the links below.