This second installment in Naxos' ongoing Sousa edition follows the same format as the first: a large, three-movement suite--At the Movies--surrounded by smaller works. The most surprising piece here is a collection of popular hymn tunes called Songs of Grace and Songs of Glory that begins with a wind transcription of the opening of Verdi's Requiem(!) that segues via harp glissandos into Rock of Ages. Aside from the almost Ivesian juxtaposition of tunes (okay, Ives would have played them all simultaneously whereas Sousa lays them end to end), the most outstanding thing about this thoroughly enjoyable potpourri is the lovely, sensitive scoring. Other noteworthy works include three very popular marches (King Cotton, Bullets and Bayonets, Solid Men to the Front) and a delightful "Patrol" based on English, Scottish, and Irish folk tunes called Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle. Happily the performances in this installment, though dating from the same period as Volume 1, offer slightly cleaner, richer sonics (perhaps the different recording venue had something to do with it), though I still would prefer better balances from the percussion and greater rhythmic clarity throughout. Nevertheless, the interest of the repertoire and liveliness of approach earn this disc a firm recommendation.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

One of America's musical treasures, the United States Marine Band, gets plenty of time to shine on this box set featuring selections from their appearances on NPR's "Performance Today." Perfect for the 4th of July or anytime you're in the mood to feel patriotic, this box set is the musical version of the American flag!

This recording celebrates Sousa's important early associations with dance and the music theatre. Picture a young John Philip Sousa, a tiny young man aged eleven, confidently standing in front of a group of much older musicians, playing his violin in the style of the famous Strauss and leading his own popular dance orchestra as Washington's society swirls and dances in front of him. It is impossible to overestimate the effect this interaction of the young man, his orchestra and the dancers was to have on the later Sousa -the composer to be. He was once quoted as saying, "I want my marches to make a man with a wooden leg stand up and dance." The dance never left him. Dancing rhythms for ever permeated his compositions, marches and dances alike. A young Dance Prince begat the March King. Soon also, his musical activities brought him to the theatre, where he began to experience the close and often raucous give and take of audience and performer that constituted the popular side of nineteenth century American theatre and early vaudeville. By the age of 21 he was the leader, arranger and concert master of the orchestra at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Later he led the Chestnut Street Theatre Orchestra in Philadelphia. Once again the magical chemistry of music and rhythm, as it reaches for audiences, became central to the composer's thinking. While many of the dances found here stem from this early period of Sousa's life, these initial encounters with the infectiousness of music and how it infuses dancers and listeners never left him. Throughout his long and sparkling career he continued to write music for each new craze: waltzes, gallops, two-steps, gavottes, tangos, cakewalks, rags, polkas, marches of course, and sometimes even a foxtrot or two.