U.S. Army officer John J. Pershing (1860-1948) was the only living person to rise to the highest Army rank ever held: General of the Armies. + He was also founding father of The U.S. Army Band in 1922. + A commemoration to this great man and his role with the U.S. Army Band, "Pershing's Own" contains many fantastic songs including Summon the Heroes, Close Harmony and Dance of the Jesters. + The Army Band is widely noted for its immense talent and stellar showmanship.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipes and Drums, Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band, USMC.

The mission of the U.S. Army Band is to inspire America's soldiers and citizens with music. The men and women of this esteemed musical organization accomplish this mission thousands of times each year during performances in the nation's capital, throughout the country and around the world. Established by General of the Armies John J. Pershing in 1922, the U.S. Army Band is the official musical organization for many diplomatic and state functions at the White House, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, at Arlington National Cemetery, and at the Tomb of the Unknown. Leading every Presidential Inaugural Parade since 1925, the U.S. Army Band, known a "Pershing's Own," has also represented the Nation at miliary ceremonies and special events around the world including the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland, The Kennedy Center Honors National Telecast and the opening of the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games. It is with great pride that Altissimo! dedicates this recording, God Bless America, to all Americans around the world who serve the cause of freedom.

Strike Up The Band

Holding the Flag

The US Army Chorus, the US Military's only all-male Chorus has recorded 26 tracks of just about every official army song imaginable from "Ballad of the Green Berets" to "Yellow Ribbon".

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: US Army Band.

Includes armed forces medley. Ensembles: United States Army Soldiers' Chorus, United States Army Field Band.
Includes west point medley by various composers. Ensembles: United States Army Soldiers' Chorus, United States Army Field Band.

UNITED STATES ARMY CONCERT BAND: Live in Concert

UNITED STATES ARMY BAND: Dances Around the World

UNITED STATES NAVY BAND: From the Sea

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BAND OF MID-AMERICA: One Of Our own

US Military Bands (Military Workout With Military Music)

•The United States Air Force Academy Stellar Brass is a brass and percussion ensemble and has performed across the nation. Their musical virtuosity spans across performance styles and genres, including everything from arrangements of classical favorites, to original commissions. Fireworks for Brass and Organ features not only the full, rich sound of the brass ensemble, but also the wide-ranging capabilities of the organ. Combined, they can perform works such as the finale from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, “Organ” and the Hallelujah Chorus, as well as Suite for Organ, Brass Quintet, and Percussion, an original work by composer Craig Phillips. Now, Fireworks for Brass and Organ will be available at a special reduced price! Don’t miss this opportunity to experience this special pairing of instrumental groups in ways both old and new!

United States Marine Band: Music of Richard Strauss

UNITED STATES ARMY BAND: From Sea to Shining Sea

UNITED STATES NAVY BAND CRUISERS: Cruisin' Roundabout

SOUSA Semper Fidelis. Manhattan Beach. Comrades of the Legion. Sabre and Spurs. The Gallant Seventh. King Cotton. The Gridiron Club. Who’s Who in Navy Blue. The Invincible Eagle. The Royal Welch Fusiliers. La Reine de la Mer Waltz. Processional Polonaise. Suite: Looking Upward. The Bride Elect: Selections . Easter Morning on the White House Lawn • John Bourgeois, cond; U.S. Marine Band • ALTISSIMO 9722 (70:40)

The March King had a lifelong distrust of recordings. Of the 1,166 shellacs that the Sousa Band made for the Victor Talking Machine Co., he conducted only six. These are pored over by dedicated Sousa scholars, including a former director of the Yale Band. Their holy grail is Sousa’s “authentic” performance style. Yes, HIPness has reached the parade ground.


What makes such historical sleuthing important is that the outdoor versions of Sousa’s beloved marches are only a rough template for what he did in concert. Every piece had a “secret” arrangement, cued by hand and passed along by word of mouth, that doesn’t appear in any published edition. I served my time marching at football halftime alongside my fellow high-school clarinetists, and we did what rank-and-file players still do: We played all the time, with few rests; we maintained a slow walking pace; we were loud. But Sousa considered the march to be among the most difficult genres to perform correctly.


One reason is that he was a violinist, although he learned from boyhood onward to play every band instrument (his father enlisted him in the Marine Band at age 13 to keep his son from running away to join a circus band). He worshipped Johan Strauss II, Arthur S. Sullivan, and Jacques Offenbach. In other words, Sousa had a refined ideal in his mind of nuance and elegance, not the blaring patriotic display his marches are mostly used for. In concert, as opposed to the marching field, he preferred thinner orchestration, subtle phrasing, and varied accents. But these “secrets” can only be gleaned by interviewing surviving band members who played under him until his death in 1932, picking up the style by ear from original Sousa Band recordings, and laboriously comparing manuscripts and meager handwritten notations on the parts the band used.


Wrap up all this research with a bow, and you get the present CD from the U.S. Marine Band, which Sousa conducted for a relatively brief stint between 1880 and 1892. The extensive program notes make for fascinating reading, even if your knees can no longer contemplate marching two miles in the Easter Parade. Your ears will immediately notice how enjoyably civilized these performances are. Band director Col. John Bourgeois sets the tempo at a relaxed 118–120 beats a minute, which Sousa favored—he sped up the pace for encores, to get the audience more excited. The instrumentation is lean until the “grandioso” finish, when it’s all hands on deck.


The album’s title, Semper Fidelis , refers to the only popular march on the disc. Rather than a collection of greatest hits, the program highlights Sousa’s diversity, since he wrote songs, suites, waltzes, and operettas, none as successful as his marches. My favorite rarity here was the 18-minute suite Looking Upward , Sousa’s precursor to Holst’s The Planets , with movements titled “By the Light of the Polar Star” and “Mars and Venus.” One hears the best of Sousa’s exotic touches, actual chords for the horns and trumpets, and something forbidden in a field march, an accelerando.


The Marine Band, which produced and engineered the CD, shows off its considerable musicianship as a concert ensemble; the recorded sound is full but a bit too distant to capture much inner detail. To be candid, Sousa’s best tunes are in his two dozen or so most famous marches, but even in their absence these are eye-opening works. All his life he secretly wanted to be America’s Johan Strauss, Jr., and for once a recording comes close to fulfilling his wishes.

FANFARE: Huntley Dent

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Sound Off!

PRESIDENT'S OWN UNITED STATES MARINE BAND: Director's Choice

UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY BAND: West Point On the March

United States Army Field Band Jazz Ambassodors: The Legacy o

United States Air Force Academy Band: The Big Blue Ball

Not Sousa, Vol. 3: Even More Great Marches Not by John Phili

This album features classics like "Stars and Stripes Forever," and "Men of Ohio," along with John Philip Sousa’s "Washington Post" performed by the bands of each branch of the military! (Altissimo)