Canadian Brass
July 3, 2008 8:12 PM   Subscribe

The brass quintet Canadian Brass is both venerable--it's been around 38 years--and prolific--its discography is as long as your arm. While they often play classical arrangements, they also mix in jazz and blues, along with a complement of showmanship and humor. (Also, they play Flight of the Bumblebee on the tuba.) [Mouseover for titles.]
posted by Upton O'Good (18 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
A very entertaining group to see live as well (even being a woodwinder myself)-- I remember a high school band field trip to see them when they toured near us. The tuba player did a bit of Flight of the Bumblebee, but only upon request.
posted by supercres at 8:25 PM on July 3, 2008


They recorded this news theme for CBC.
posted by evilcolonel at 9:08 PM on July 3, 2008


They also play non-stop in my mother's living room from December 18th-30th, 24 hours a day, every single goddamned year.
posted by bicyclefish at 9:35 PM on July 3, 2008


These guys were the shit in my high school brass quintet days back in the, well, before most of you were born (recovering horn player.)

Good to see they're still around to entertain the latest generation of band nerds.

Get off my lawn.
posted by Opposite George at 9:43 PM on July 3, 2008


Of course, the actual Canadian Brass website is unimportant...
posted by Kimothy at 9:51 PM on July 3, 2008


I remember seeing a PBS special in the mid-90s where the Canadian Brass performed with the Star of Indiana drum and bugle corps. As a high school trumpeter (and later, college), I though it was pretty cool to see a marching performance on a stage. One part that I remember was the CB started off playing Pachebel's Canon, then, one by one, a member of the Star of Indiana walks on stage and joins them. By the end, there's about 60 performers on stage with a row of tubas down in front of the stage. It was awesome.
posted by phrayzee at 10:38 PM on July 3, 2008


How can you talk about the Canadian Brass without mentioning Dixieland music? It's not just jazz!
posted by Class Goat at 11:25 PM on July 3, 2008


Has Cdn Brass always been composed† of the same members?

†punny!
posted by five fresh fish at 11:26 PM on July 3, 2008


No. The trombone and the tuba are founders but I think all the others are replacements. However, the current lineup goes back more than 15 years.
posted by Class Goat at 12:51 AM on July 4, 2008


I always wondered who would win if the Canadian Brass got into a fight with the Tijuana Brass.

My money's on the Canadians.
posted by Shohn at 5:18 AM on July 4, 2008


Going through my degree in music, I always hung out with the brass players. The Canadian Brass were everybody's heroes.
posted by LN at 6:27 AM on July 4, 2008


I saw them live at a band event in early high school. Later that year, I was having trouble in my school jazz band with some flugelhorn music. The only other person I had ever seen play the flugelhorn was one of the guys from Canadian Brass, so I sent him an email with some questions, though I didn't really expect to hear back. I got a response back within a few days with plenty of supportive and useful advice.

Also, I once saw their percussionist play drum kit, piano, and marimba parts for a single song. He was surrounded by instruments and would occasionally play more of them simultaneously than i would have thought possible.
posted by cubby at 6:49 AM on July 4, 2008


Wait - scratch that. Upon reviewing my memories and old cd collection, those anecdotes should be attributed to Rhythm & Brass. Also a great collection of musicians.
posted by cubby at 7:21 AM on July 4, 2008


I saw them live when I was probably in sixth or seventh grade and still bothered to practice playing trumpet. It was around Christmas and they had the whole concert hall - several thousand people - sing Silent Night along with their performance. It was fantastic.
posted by dismas at 10:06 AM on July 4, 2008


The Canadian Brass are tons of fun. Class Goat, for whatever reason, the trumpet and horn guys are almost all rotating -- they don't really have the same total lineup for more than a year or two. The trumpet chairs in particular are really demanding and require lots of musical versatility, but the kinds of guys and gals that they get to do it (usually) have their hearts in orchestral brass playing and eventually want to get out of the touring lifestyle to try to get an orchestra gig.

For more brass fun, check out the German Brass.

I am in a little group myself...
posted by rossination at 5:37 PM on July 4, 2008


Heard them several times - definitely worth seeing when you can. Very entertaining and versatile.
posted by hydrate at 10:29 PM on July 4, 2008


Love the Canadian Brass. A couple of my favorites.

Kimothy... Did you mean this site?
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:23 PM on July 6, 2008


Weird....

Yes. Yes I did... That's what I get for being snarky.
posted by Kimothy at 7:57 PM on July 8, 2008


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