Porchfest - ICO Brass Quintet

After attending my first Porchfest here at Ithaca, I can easily say that it was a wonderful experience. There were so many talented, unique musicians and bands out there that I had the opportunity to listen to, but the one band that I enjoyed the most had to be the Ithaca Community Orchestra (ICO) Brass Quintet. The band was comprised of two trumpets, one tuba, one trombone, and one french horn, and they all blended beautifully (http://icobrass.org). What made them so great, aside from their rich sound, was the variety of music they played. They played classical tunes from the likes of George Frederic Handel, marches, overtures, jazz, and even sprinkled in some folk music.

One classic jazz piece they performed was "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" by the iconic Duke Ellington (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyt5reZmVAI unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ask for permission to us a recording of them that I made, so this is as closes to what it sounded like at the festival). From my perspective, the song gave off a somewhat lazy, sleepy, or lackadaisical vibe to it. The song's tempo was played around adagio (easy) and at mezzo piano (medium soft). Listening to the song makes me think of someone that literally doesn't get around much anymore; someone, possibly elderly, who lives carefree and lays in his/her bed all day. Especially during the main melody in the beginning of the tune, I picture a person putting some effort to try to get his/her up several times (the melody begins on a higher note to a lower note, and leaps back up to the same high note and back down again to the same lower note and repeats), but each time he/she finds him/herself slowly falling back into the cozy, luxurious bed that the person is so accustomed to. I also appreciated the vibrato used by some of the musicians. I thought it gave the song its authentic taste.

I felt as if the music played by the quintet was more intended for mature, older audience who grew up listening to those types of music. However, it struck a chord in me, not only because this is the genre of music I usually listen to, but that I've played most of these songs at one point before, including "Don't Get Around Much Anymore". I can remember playing that song, that melody at multiple gigs for my high school band and how much I practiced the song to make sure I had that melody embedded into my brain.

The band proceeded with the "Can-Can", which, unlike the song prior, is more lively and vigorous. From my own take, I thought by the them playing "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" established a mellow mood among the myself and the rest of the audience and then the "Can-Can" was meant to sort of "catch us all off guard" and "wake us up". Its tempo is more vivace (lively) and its dynamics were more fortissimo (very loud). It got your heart pounding again after the previous song slowed down and eased your pulse.

All in all, my first Porchfest experience was a memorable one and I hope to make it for next years festival!