United States Navy Band

“Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.”

― Alphonse de Lamartine

It’s like I blinked and it’s 2015.  December was filled with music, merry-making, a large-scale production and a Midwest Conference.  As if that wasn’t enough of a whirlwind, the next few weeks were filled with family and children, lots and lots of wrapping paper, and very little quiet time.

I entered the building earlier this month for the first time since the New Year.  All is the same, except for one thing: I have now been a member of the U.S. Navy Band for officially one year.  This time last year, I was gallivanting around the area, getting fitted for uniforms, meeting with officers, and getting acquainted with the beltway.  Now I have all my uniforms, I’ve met all the officers, and the beltway and I have continue to duke it out during my morning commute.

But it’s essentially a gift to walk into a place prepared to make music.  I don’t ever take this for granted.  Maybe you’ve seen the video of Sportscaster Jim Rome’s now infamous tweet calling out marching band members as “dorks”. Well, he got eloquently schooled by Sgt. 1st Class Lauren Curran about what it is that military bands actually do.

“The character is much more important to us than whether or not something seems cool,” she states, after encouraging him to join a rehearsal with the Army Field Band to see firsthand the discipline, technique and difficulty of the kind of training they have to go through every day. I’ll definitely be following this story in the hopes that Mr. Rome will take her up on the offer.  Thank you, Sgt. Curran, for speaking so well on behalf of military bands.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and I’m sitting at a work station listening to the sounds of the U.S. Navy Commodores and their new vocalist, Musician 1st Class Kristine Hsia, jam on one of our holiday tunes.  It’s “Little Jack Frost Get Lost” (the Peggy Lee/Bing Crosby version), and I can’t help but think how most office cubicles don’t provide soundtracks.  Yet here at the Navy Band building, nobody thinks twice about it.  It’s just a part of the atmosphere. 

This marks my first holiday season with the band, and I’m learning that it balances quite a lot in the month of December.  In addition to providing support at concerts and ceremonies, there are two large-scale events happening: the holiday concert at Constitution Hall in Washington and the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

This year’s holiday concert features a wide array of music from Michael Buble’ and the Puppini Sisters to Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.  It’s everything across the board from jazz and gospel to traditional tunes.

The Midwest Clinic is a four-day band and orchestra event designed for educators and people passionate about music education.  It is attended by more than 17,000 visitors from  more than 30 countries.  And it wasn’t until I passed Musician 1st Class Allison Fletcher (flutist) in the hallway downstairs that I was able to ask what it was all about.

“Why are people running around talking about this Midwest thing?”  I asked her a bit dumbfounded.

Well, she told me it’s only the biggest musical conference in the country.

Got it.

So as I’m getting the bigger picture, I’m realizing the scope of the outreach the Navy Band will have this holiday season, and what kind of balancing act it has to do in order to make that happen.  But we are musicians and this is historically always our busiest season for a reason.  Not that I mind!  When I’m done writing this article, I’ll go back to listening to Chief Musician Courtney Williams sing a killer rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch” in the Sail Loft. 

Happy holidays, readers.

If you haven't already seen the article posted by Adrian Sainz about the closing of two Navy Fleet bands, it's worth a read. The story, entitled "After musician reduction, Navy bands in Tennessee, New Orleans dismantled amid reorganization," was featured in U.S. News, and it delicately explores the subject of what Navy Bands do and how that's adjusting in a time of tight budgets.

As Lt. Cartwright points out, music made by Navy Bands "...can communicate with the people of any country on the planet more effectively than anybody is going to speaking." However, times change, and fiscally speaking the Navy had to make some cutbacks.

This past week was Veteran's Day and military bands were featured all over the place. My old rock band, the Destroyers (pictured above), played a show in front of the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego. Navy Band Northeast was featured on "Fox and Friends." Our musical comrades, the U.S. Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants, were featured in HBO's "Concert for Valor." Pretty much everywhere you look, you saw a military band somewhere this week.

To all vets on land and on sea, thank you for your service. And for those military musicians working hard to bring the message of freedom across the country, thank you for illustrating the point: "Where words leave off, music begins." (Heinrich Heine)

Fall has come and is slowly dwindling here in Washington.  As we head into the early months of the holiday season, you might stroll into a department store and notice Christmas decorations are already up.

Christmas decorations?  Before Thanksgiving?!

Yup, it comes earlier and earlier every year.  But here’s some food for thought: Christmas begins even earlier for musicians.  We start thinking about holiday music at summer’s end. 

What kind of tunes should we put on this year’s show?

What groups will we be featuring?

Who’s playing and singing what?

So the Navy Band has already begun its holiday season, because by the time the rest of the world has trick-or-treated, and feasted on Thanksgiving turkey, we are prepared to fill you with the holiday spirit… through music, that is.

Yet another Band has set out for tour.  Sunday, Oct. 26, the Commodores jazz ensemble started their 20-day tour to New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.  You can view their schedule here.  To our traveling shipmates, I offer you the words of Garrison Keillor (host of “The Writer’s Almanac”) who always says, “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

The staff member asked, “Would you like to go up on the lift?”

The group of us looked at our gear piled up on the back of the stage at the loading dock level, then grinned and said, “Sure!”

We piled onto the stage as they hit a button.  Slowly—ever so slowly—the platform began to rise.  It wasn’t fast by any means, and though we joked about the speed there were loud “oooo’s” and “aaah’s” as we crested the stage.  The view before us was stunning.  Strathmore’s concert hall walls were stained white birch, the floors were maple, and the seats were velour with red birch accents.  This was where the Navy Band would perform its annual Navy birthday concert.

It probably goes without saying that a lot of work goes into this production, beginning in the early months of the year as production director Musician 1st Class Amanda Polychronis creates a rough outline for the show.  (For a more detailed look at this process, you can read the upcoming November/December 2014 issue of Fanfare exploring a Navy Band production from A-Z).  But from that rough outline comes a full script, a long list of musical numbers, video footage, and a night to remember. 

It’s an all-day evolution on the day of the show, from running a “cue-to-cue,” to a dress rehearsal.  A bus carts us to a nearby location for dinner.  A few of us opted to grab something at Whole Foods, and then with our extra time we chose to walk back and enjoy the cool autumn weather.  Following dinner break, everyone dons their dinner dress uniforms and heads backstage to prepare for the top of the show.

Best memories of the Navy birthday show: Hearing Musician 1st Class Mike Webb play acoustic guitar and sing lead vocals on “Into the Mystic,” Musician 1st Class Casey Elliott slam dunking “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, and receiving my first command coin from the CNO himself, Adm. Jonathan Greenert. 

How’s that for a party favor?

A radio host asked Musician 1st Class Kenny Ray Horton, is being a Navy musician a glamorous job? Which got me to thinking…

What most people know of Navy musicians is what they see on stage: an hour or more of fun, entertaining music performed by talented and professional Sailors. Country Current is touring through six states right now, so it seems like a good time to share what life is like on the road.

Mornings tend to be the best time for exercise, maintaining instruments, and practice. Some mornings, though, are shortened if you have a long day of travel ahead.

The band packs into a few rental vehicles and one box truck to travel to the next town. Mostly it’s been a different hotel each night, with three to five-hour drives between each town. It’s a fantastic way to see this great country!

Country Current arrives to each venue several hours before the concert is scheduled to begin. There is no stage crew; Navy musicians move and set up their own gear. After they unload and unpack, the musicians warm up and then do a sound check. Each instrument and voice is mic’ed, so the audio engineer can ensure the best product during the entire show.

After the sound check, the musicians get changed into their uniforms and… wait. Typically, audience members start filing into a hall 30 to 60 minutes before the concert starts, so Country Current has to be off the stage by then. 

And then the concert! Each concert lasts about 60 to 75 minutes, and people love every second. The group plays an entertaining mix of country and bluegrass, punctuated by fun banter, and stories about our Sailors deployed around the world. There’s a point during every show where the group honors veterans in the audience, performing each service’s song.

After the concert, members of the band go out into the audience and talk to people. Once everyone’s left the hall, the musicians change out of their uniforms and begin packing up and loading all the gear.