Veterans Day, 11 November 2024, found me in Bellevue for my third performance at The Gardens at Town Square retirement community. That afternoon, I presented my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag” to a large, generous audience.
Actually, I have two versions of this show. In 2021, after the Covid Pandemic peaked, I performed the “talk version.” In this show, I not only play patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls, but also, I talk about veterans’ current well-being, concerns, and activities. But this year, I performed the “standard version”–about two dozen pieces of music with a bit of talk to introduce each piece. The audience sings along as I play my five horns: Getzen Eterna Severinsen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, Austin Custom Brass (ACB) flugelhorn, Getzen bugle, and Jupiter pocket trumpet.
We had such a great time that I look forward to returning sometime in 2025, God willing. I have six different trumpet shows, so there’s plenty to choose from. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Lobby, courtesy of Fairwinds, Brighton Court, Lynnwood
Veterans Day generated three gigs for me, and the first one was at Fairwinds, Brighton Court in Lynnwood on Saturday, 9 November 2024—two days before the actual Veterans Day (11 November). The other two performances will be covered in forthcoming blog posts.
I’ve now performed at 32 retirement communities, including many repeat appearances, throughout the Greater Seattle area. Fairwinds, Brighton Court is now the leader with six performances. My first trumpet show there was in 2018.
On this occasion, I appeared in my VFW uniform and presented my one-hour show, “I Stand for the Flag.” The audience was large and quite responsive. I used five horns: trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, bugle, and pocket trumpet. The show consists of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. The audience sings along.
I look forward to returning for a seventh time in 2025, God willing. I offer six different shows, so next time could be entirely a different experience for the residents. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Audience heads for the concession stand (right background) during Intermission. Liz Dreisbach, band creator and director, stands in foreground.
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.
Returning to seats after Intermission.Find the man eating popcorn and the man waving.Returning to seats after Intermission.Two beautiful baritones
It was Independence Day, and I was returning to Mercer Island, where I lived for 30 years (1973-2003), to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag,” at Island House MBK Senior Living, a retirement community. Moreover, I was returning to Island House itself, where I had sounded “Taps” six years ago in a ceremony on Memorial Day, 28 May 2018. It was good to be back!
It was a bright, warm day, so the staff, led by Jacqueline Lilly, Director of Wellness Programming, set things up in the courtyard, where I and many of the audience sat under large, dark green umbrellas. I wore my VFW Honor Guard uniform, and as usual, played five horns–Getzen trumpet and field trumpet (bugle), Olds Super Cornet, ACB flugelhorn, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. The show consists of two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls.
For more information about Island House, please see https://www.mbkseniorliving.com/senior-living/wa/mercer-island/island-house/. It is located downtown and offers assisted living and short-term stays in studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. Photos courtesy of Island House, Mercer Island.
If it’s your birthday, where do you go? You go perform a one-hour trumpet show, “In Retrospect,” at Edmonds Landing in Edmonds, WA, because they invited you to do so! And that’s exactly what I did at 2 p.m. on 24 June. It was my third performance for the residents there, courtesy of Lifestyle Director, Sonia Pace.
For this show, I use four horns: Getzen trumpet, Olds Super cornet, ACB flugelhorn, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. I play about two dozen popular songs from the residents’ era. They were composed during the 84-year period from 1892 to 1976. As I play each song, I comment on it and relate it to something that we all experience at some time in our lives, including courtship, marriage, family, death, and national pride and loyalty. It’s a favorite of mine among my six different trumpet shows.
Edmonds Landing offers Independent Living and Assisted Living in 83 apartments on two floors in the “Edmonds Bowl.” It is part of the family of retirement communities operated by Frontier Senior Living (please see https:/www.frontiermgmt.com).
Photos courtesy of Edmonds Landing (except for poster).
Who is not a Sousa fan? I certainly am, so I joined the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band in order to perform at the umpteenth annual concert celebrating the 169th birthday of John Philip Sousa, America’s foremost composer of military marches. He was a Marine and conducted “The President’s Own” Marine Band from 1880-1892. He wrote more than 130 marches and operettas. I play my flugelhorn among the baritone section of the band. Why “sedentary?” Because this band does not march!
A sold-out crowd of 80 came to little Kenyon Hall (see http://www.kenyonhall.org) in West Seattle on 5 November to enjoy 1.5 hours filled with 13 Marches. The crowd was quite engaged and even boisterous at times. After the band played “El Capitan,” the band director, Liz Dreisbach, passed out some lyrics from Sousa’s operetta of the same name, and they sang as if they were a choir in the cast. They ate Sousa’s birthday cake during the intermission. And with noisemakers, they became percussionists, on signals from the band’s Sedentary Majorette, Edith Farrar, when the band played “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.”
Sousa (1854-1932) was born in Washington, D.C. and is buried there, too, at the Congressional Cemetery along the west bank of the Anacostia River, a tributary of the Potomac River. Annually, on 6 November, the Marine Band performs “Semper Fidelis” and “Stars and Stripes Forever” (our national march) at his gravesite. You can witness this year’s ceremony here: https://www.dvidshub.net/webcast/33126. If you have trouble with the feed from this link, try the Chrome browser.
Kenyon Hall is operated by a non-profit organization and presents live vaudeville, musical, and theatrical performances and arts-based education. It is home of the 1929 mighty Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ and is West Seattle’s lighthearted entertainment palace. The building is 110 years old and has recently undergone some important interior remodeling. New siding is also planned.
They had me back again for the fourth time! But this time, on 26 October at The Bellittini retirement community in Bellevue, it was to perform a different one-hour trumpet show.
“In Retrospect” is designed to draw the audience into recalling many common experiences that we all share through our lifetimes–when we were teenagers, when we were dating, when we were grown and single and later married, when we were raising children, when we were very happy, when we had troubles, when we lost someone whom we dearly loved, and as we are now, aging. I selected 24 popular songs from the residents’ era that are about many such common experiences.
How does a solo trumpet evoke such memories? Well, first, I use four horns and second, I play songs written to express those specific life circumstances. We simply match the song’s message and sentiment with the most compatible horn.
Each horn has a different timbre (“tam’-ber”), meaning tone quality or tone color. The sound of the trumpet and pocket trumpet is brilliant white, sharp, piercing. The cornet produces a more rounded, mellow, tan tone. The flugelhorn’s sound is big, fat, round, deep, rich brown, similar to a euphonium or mellophone. So, for the sad, slow, blues song, “St. James Infirmary,” I use the flugelhorn. For the bouncy, happy, fun song, “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” I use the trumpet. For the dreamy, lilting love song, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” I use the cornet with a Bach 8C mouthpiece. For the idealistic, wistful, slow song, “When I Fall in Love,” I use the cornet with a Denis Wick 4 mouthpiece.
It all works quite well. The audience likes it. “In Retrospect” is becoming a favorite show of mine. You should hear it!
Please click on the images below to see the full instruments.
My last post here was in last July, about 9-1/2 months ago. Why so long ago? For a whole variety of reasons, but let me name the Big Four:
Too busy/lazy in most of July 2022
Traveling from August to mid-October
Fracture in lower back, plus sciatica, on 1 December
Recovery/rehab from December to present
Last December, I was forced to cancel four trumpet shows at retirement communities in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and La Conner, and neither could I sound “Echo Taps” at the annual Wreaths Across America ceremony at Veterans Cemetery at Evergreen-Washelli in Seattle, as I have done since 2011. For three months, I had to cancel all by trumpet lessons with my students.
And now, finally, after a total of almost five months, thank God, “I’m Back in the Saddle Again,” as Gene Autrey crooned in my youth. Proof? A bone-density test showed that I don’t have osteoporosis. Recent X-rays revealed that the fracture has healed. I don’t have to wear a back brace anymore. I still use the walker or cane often, for safety, but not always, as I had to for the first three months. I’m getting out-and-about more and more!
And the best proof of all is that on 21 April, I performed my one-hour trumpet show, “In Retrospect,” at Aljoya, Mercer Island, driving myself on the freeways, both to and fro. It consists of about two dozen hit songs from the residents’ era, and they get to sing (and hum) along! I used four of my five horns—trumpet, cornet, pocket trumpet, and flugelhorn, but not my bugle. It was my third appearance at Aljoya, M.I. They have now seen/heard two of my six shows. This was the first time I’ve been able to play my new flugelhorn in public. It was a Christmas gift from my wife. I used it for “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” “Alfie,” and “St. James Infirmary Blues.”
Meanwhile, just for the record, here are the 17 articles that I could have written and posted during the past 9-1/2 months, if this or that had or had not happened:
2 July – “I Stand for the Flag” performed at The Bellettini in Bellevue
17 June 2022 – “Where Were You, Back Then?” at Merrill Gardens at Renton Centre
4 July – “I Stand for the Flag” at Aljoya, Thornton Place in North Seattle
5 August – Attended 71st Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland (our fifth attendance)
30 September – Performed “Taps” for my high school classmate, Eddie Ray Hendrikson, USAF Veteran, at Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Texas
1 October – Performed abbreviated show for my classmates at our high school reunion in Texas
2 November – Performed “Echo Taps” with Laurence Stusser, trumpeter, as the “echo” at the dedication ceremony for the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument in Lynnwood
9 November – “I Stand for the Flag” at The Bellettini
10 November – “I Stand for the Flag” at University House, Wallingford in Seattle
11 November – Entire ceremony at Veterans Park cancelled by the City of Lynnwood; no “Echo Taps”
12 November – One of my trumpet students played “I Ain’t Worried” at Lessons In Your Home’s Fall Recital in Phinney Ridge in Seattle
14 November – “I Stand for the Flag” at Fairwinds, Brighton Court in Lynnwood
2, 5, 16, 17, & 22 December – the five cancellations mentioned above
So far this year, I’ve been very cautious about committing to my usual busy schedule of performances. Right now, I’m booked for only 8 more performances. But now that “I’m Back in the Saddle Again,” I’m ready for more!
By Angel Johnson of Aljoya, Mercer Island:
Singing “When I’m 64”
By Greg Asimakopoulos:
Flugelhorn, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”
It’s always nice to be invited back to perform one of my six trumpet shows for the residents of a retirement home. And so it was, on the 4th of March, that I drove to Merrill Gardens retirement community in Burien to present my show, “In Retrospect,” comprised of 25 hit songs from the residents’ era. Last July, I had performed “I Stand for the Flag” (25 patriotic marches, songs and bugle calls) there in my VFW uniform.
Here’s a sample of the popular songs in the “In Retrospect” repertoire:
I Whistle a Happy Tune
When I Fall in Love
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
Dream a Little Dream of Me
I’ve Got the World on a String
Money, Money, Money
You Are My Sunshine
When I’m 64
What a Wonderful World
God Bless America
I use three horns: my trumpet, cornet, and pocket trumpet and by inserting my Denis Wick 4 mouthpiece into the cornet, it sounds much like a flugelhorn. People sing along and I tell a few jokes.
Photo courtesy of Cristwood Park, 390 N 190th St, Shoreline, WA
When I performed my one-hour trumpet show, “Where Were You, Back Then?”, for the first time on 22 August this year, it was at Cristwood Park Retirement Community in Shoreline, WA. But that was not the first time I had performed at Cristwood (see my blog articles of 24 June 2019, 11 July 2018, and 28 June 2014). I offer six different shows, and the Life Enrichment Coordinator, Gabrielle Herndon, wanted something new and different. She chose to host the premier performance of my latest show.
It’s different because its format is chronological, not topical. I choose a year, recall for the audience a few significant events that happened back then, invite everyone to remember where they were and what they were doing at that time, and then play one hit song from that year.
Inside is a large auditorium and fully-equipped, elevated stage
This time, I used three of my horns: trumpet, cornet and pocket trumpet, but when I get my new flugelhorn in March, I’ll start using four.
The show starts with the year 1947 and ends with 2008. That’s a span of 61 years, but I have time to play only 20 songs. So how do I choose those 20 when, each year, there are hundreds of nationally- and globally-significant events? Well, I chose 1947 simply because that’s the year my wife was born–a very significant year, wouldn’t you agree if you were in my shoes?! The song I play is “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah.”
Why end in 2008? Simply because I like playing Abba’s “Money, Money, Money” which was featured in the movie, Mama Mia, and my audience members couldn’t be living in a retirement community as nice as this one unless they had had some financial success in their long lifetimes. And as with all my shows, I invite the audience to sing along, and I tell a few jokes.
So, take 1963, for example. Where were you, back then? On 2 February, Julia Childs presented her show, “The French Chef,” on educational TV for the first time. On 21 April, Dr. Michael E. De Bakey implanted an artificial heart in a human for the first time at a hospital in Houston, TX. On 22 November, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX. Lyndon Johnson immediately succeeded Kennedy as President. On 24 November, Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Others who died that year included C.S. Lewis (64); Robert Frost (88); Aldous Huxley (69); Patsy Cline (30); and Edith Piaf (47). And then I play “Days of Wine and Roses” from the movie starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. That song won the 1963 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
With that performance, Cristwood became the 24th retirement community in the Greater Seattle area where I have presented at least one of my six trumpet shows. For more information about Cristwood, please see https://cristaseniorliving.org/cristwood.
Glenn's Trumpet Notes 