Canadian Brass wows audience

As a gift to Kelowna, Kelowna Community Concerts, in partnership with Parks Alive, presented a tremendous free concert at the Island Stage in City Park. What a wonderful way to celebrate Canada’s 150th. Local jazz musicians The Neville Bowman Trio warmed up the audience. Bowman is a magnificent singer, pianist, composer, arranger and actor whose musical maturity and infectious energy are always a treat.

Joining him were bassist Bernie Addington and drummer Martin Lord. This tight group of jazz masters offered a variety of styles from rock to hip hop to barn-burning swing--all from a traditional trio jazz perspective.

From Sting to Adam Levine to Oscar Peterson, their set was a joy from beginning to end.

Headlining the concert was a true Canadian musical institution, The Canadian Brass. Performing their 276th of over 300 shows to Celebrate Canada’s Big Birthday, these five gentlemen brought a world-class show to a large Kelowna crowd. (All at no charge, thanks to Kelowna Community Concerts and Parks Alive.)

Canadian Brass members are Achilles Liarmakopoulos on trombone, Bernhard Scully on horn, Caleb Hudson and Chris Coletti on trumpet, and Chuck Daellenbach (co-founding member) on tuba.

Each trumpet player plays the piccolo trumpet as well as the standard one, which we are used to seeing, bringing an amazing range of sound from only five instruments. They are really an orchestra in miniature with all the excitement and subtlety you would expect from a much larger organization.

The Canadian Brass definitely brought the “hits” (spanning five centuries) to the Island Stage. The group opened the show by walking on stage while playing a gorgeous version of the old hymn, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

Soon after, we were treated to two pieces from the 1600s. Then to a famous Bach Fugue, a waltz, Amazing Grace and two pieces from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Next, was the coolest mash up of When the Saints Go Marching In and the Hallelujah Chorus that you are ever likely to experience.

For an encore, the group played a flawless rendition of the already frantic Flight of the Bumble Bee at a break neck tempo.

Apart from being master musicians, the Canadian Brass are also master entertainers. From the tongue-incheek humour to the subtle yet critical movements around the stage, every piece of this show, both aurally and visually, was perfection.

Tuba player Chuck Daellenbach shared a story from their Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth where the Queen asked if they were curious as to the difference between a concert and a command performance?

Her answer, “For a Command performance, you don’t get paid.”