Ideas about lightness and shadow have inspired countless artists throughout the years as expressions of beauty and mystery, sources of comfort and harbingers of doom, and representations of divinity and chaos. Each in their own way, the works on this release engage with images of light and shadow, reflecting the breadth of emotions wrapped up in this basic dichotomy that shapes all of our experiences. The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble has been described as “one of America’s most esteemed concert bands.” (New York Times) After the group’s Carnegie Hall debut in 2013, New York Times described the ensemble as “performing with polish, assurance and copious spirit, eliciting a rousing ovation.” Pieces by leading contemporary wind band composers are featured on this new release, including Steven Bryant, Aaron Perrine, James Barnes, Joel Puckett, John Mackey, and Joni Greene.

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From John Williams’s American Journey and a transcription of his Hymn to New England to Jun Nagao’s The Earth and Steven Bryant’s new fanfare In This Broad Earth, Journeys takes the listener on a musical voyage around the globe, featuring eight composers from five countries. There is new music as well as a selection of classics, including the premiere of Julie Giroux’s poignant Hymn for the Innocent, “dedicated to all the innocent lives lost and to those who are sworn to protect the innocent,” along with Frank Ticheli’s now-standard Postcard and the much-loved March from Symphonic Metamorphoses by Paul Hindemith. Concluding with fanfare, funk, and fun, Oliver Waespi’s Divertimento reimagines traditional band and wraps up with a toe-tapping Hoedown. The Concert Band, stationed a Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington DC is the premier symphonic wind ensemble of the United States Air Force and has spent the past seventy-five years performing, commissioning and giving voice to outstanding wind music. It is the largest of the six musical groups that comprise the US Air Force Band. Featuring fifty-three active duty professional Airmen musicians, the Concert Band performs throughout the United States on concert tours, radio, television and internet broadcasts, and at local concerts in the national Capitol region.

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Music professor and conductor John Philip Paynter completed his formal music studies at Northwestern University. Paynter had received early musical training at the insistence of his father, an amateur bandsman who admired Sousa. As a child, Paynter took piano and organ lessons and, like his father before him, played the clarinet. In 1956 Paynter helped to establish the 113-member Northshore Concert Band. Under his leadership the ensemble developed into the role model for community bands nationally and worldwide. With members who have been in the band for thirty years as well as recent college graduates, NCB is a fine example of the idea, championed by Paynter, that music-making should play a role in the lives of people of all ages and professions. The Northshore Concert band is heard here performing Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1. Ensembles from the Northwestern University – where Paynter served as the second Director of Bands- are heard on the other works.

INNOVATIONS • Lowell Graham, cond; U.S. Air Force Band • KLAVIER 11170 (68:16)


STRAVINSKY Fireworks. GRAINGER The Warriors. SHOSTAKOVICH October. BARBER Medea’s Dance of Vengeance. BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin: Suite


I can see the reason for transcribing music from one instrument, or group of instruments, to another—musicians don’t want to be deprived of the opportunity to play pieces not ordinarily offered to them. So I’ve heard, for example, Bach played on synthesizer, saxophone, bassoon, banjo, koto, accordion, marimba, and harmonica, among others, some more or less effective, but none as convincing as the original, intended instrument. And the larger the group, inevitably the larger the degree of difference—involving color, attack, timbre, texture, character. Ultimately, the relative success or failure rests with the transcriber, who, ideally, should be required to take a modified Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm.”


These transcriptions for concert band are all done well, and since strings are, to my knowledge, the only instruments missing from the original orchestrations, there are obvious, audible differences, but how severely they affect the music seems to depend on the particular score. I miss the strings most in Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance , where there is a loss of tenderness and the dramatic contrast between aggressive and lyrical passages is diminished (fortunately, this is a concert band and not marching band, so the important piano part is included). With more emphasis now on the winds, Stravinsky’s influence on the music is easily discernible. Similarly, Bartók’s debt to The Rite of Spring in his Miraculous Mandarin Suite is even more noticeable now, while the lack of strings affects the performance too, where the loss of the cutting edge and snap of the string phrasing results in less punch and momentum. Not being previously familiar with Percy Grainer’s The Warriors makes a comparison impossible, though those moments where the focus is on percussion instruments and jolting rhythms sound convincing. (The Stravinsky influence here is more Petrushka than Rite of Spring .) But as the music turns more lighthearted (and, in Grainger’s words, “all bitter and vengeful memories vanished”) these warriors seemingly interact as colleagues rather than antagonists, and the dilution of excitement can be blamed on the composer. The instrumental alterations damage Dmitri Shostakovich’s moody, ultimately rousing symphonic poem October less than any of the other works, probably because it receives the most intense performance of the bunch—and it’s ironic that the U.S. Air Force Band does its best in a musical tribute to the Soviet Revolution of 1917.


The Air Force Band is unfailingly accurate and commendably focused at all times; it’s not really their fault that the nature of the transcription is working against them. Nevertheless, it is easy to recommend this ambitious program to band aficionados and modernist-minded listeners who are curious about hearing this repertoire from an unfamiliar perspective.


FANFARE: Art Lange

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Includes work(s) by various composers.

This recording presents new music composed for, and commissioned by, the U.S. Air Force Band that is immediately accessible, joyful as well as powerful, and most of all, lasting. Col Lowell Graham's Grammy-winning recordings have been recognized in Stereophile's "Records to Die For" list and Absolute Sound's "The Super Disc List."

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Includes divertimento(s) by Franz Joseph Haydn. Soloists: Jeff Bradetich, Judi Rockey Bradetich.

Departures Was Inspired By the Men and Women in the US Air Force, Who Voluntarily Depart from Their Families and Friends to Locations Across the Globe, Often in Harm's Way, to Protect the Freedoms We Cherish Each and Every Day. This Recording Also Demonstrates the Heritage and Ingenuity of Our Airmen Through Music. Indeed, the Title Track of This Recording Was Composed By the Band's Own SMSGT Robert Thurston. Additionally, This Album Features the Innovations of Contemporary Composers Such As Steven Bryant, Wayne Oquin, Arturo Ma?Rquez, Kathryn Salfelder, Julie Giroux and Ron Nelson, Who Take Musical Departures to Explore New Sounds and Ideas. Departures Celebrates Those Pivotal Moments in Our History, Both in Music and in the Air Force, When a Departure from the Expected Path Made All the Difference. This Innovative Spirit Is a Hallmark of the US Air Force, and Is the Foundation Upon Which America Was Built.

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