For our final segment of Monday, December 7, we took a musical excursion last weekend. On Saturday, the UW Jazz Festival invited Dane County-area high school bands for daylong seminars, workshops and master classes with UW music faculty. The day culminated with performances by each of the high school bands and by the University Jazz Orchestra.
This segment includes:
– East High Jazz Band with their rendition of Cannonball Adderly’s “Sticks,” recorded live at the UW Music Hall
– Middleton High School Jazz Band with “My Funny Valentine” featuring Connor Kooistra on trombone
– Madison’s Christmas Tuba Ensemble performed in — of all places, the Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin with a rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Listen carefully, and you may be able to hear the bats squeaking in the background
For more low brass, valved instruments in cavernous spaces, be sure to check out Tuba Christmas’ annual performance in the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda, this Saturday, December 12 at 2:30 p.m. That’s a free concert, featuring hundreds of local musicians on tuba, sousaphone, baritone and euphoniums.