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Alternative Bands 101 - A Primer
The idea of
building alternatives to the quasi-militaristic and classical tradition
of brass and wind bands may have had its start with the ‘pep’
bands formed in the US during the late 1960's to accompany sports
events at high schools and colleges. Since the 1920's or even before,
these same sports events had had more traditional style marching
bands playing marches and school fight songs and marching in formation
on football fields during halftime shows. The indoor arena of basketball
games afforded the formation of smaller musical units capable of
the more lively rhythmic demands of popular music and these groups
started building repertoires of the current hits in pop music.
 Gradually
the larger bands for football stadiums began adopting these same
musical values, shed the military style uniforms and marching in
straight lines and began presenting themselves with a more creative,
wild and nearly anarchic dynamic. Half time formations could still
be presented where the band members would run (or scatter) to their
positions and the alternative idea of “scatter” bands
were formed. Among the earliest of these were the legendary Stanford
Univ. Band, known for their powerful arrangements played while
running full tilt (including sousaphones) across a football field,
and the Humboldt
State Marching Lumberjacks, dressed in dark green woodsmans
jackets and yellow hardhats. On the east coast some of the schools
with bands developing in the same directions about the same time
include the Dartmouth
College Marching Band, Brown
University Band, the Columbia
University Marching Band, the Univ.
of Pennsylvania (The Huge, the Enormous, the Well-Endowed, Undefeated,
Ivy-League Champion, . . . . Oxymoronic Fighting Quaker Marching
Band!!), the Princeton
University Band and the University
of Virginia Pep Band. In the American south, the Marching
Owl Band of Rice University dates their scatter transition to
1970
 It’s
unclear whether the American example ever did influence the growth
in Europe of young people taking the tradition of ensembles of wind
and percussion into their own hands and making something personal
with it. Groups of happy, tipsy revelers with horns and drums have
been a staple of Carnival celebrations all across Europe for many
years. Usually they would be simple ad-hoc groups of friends that
would get together before Carnival and learn the melodies of a few
traditional and popular tunes and then spend the holidays careening
drunkenly through the streets blaring these same few tunes over
and over.
The political arm of the alternative social movements growing across
Europe quickly realized the publicity potential in bands of people
playing ‘happy’ music in favor of various social and
political agendas. It was an extremely effective way of calling
positive attention to the subject of whatever protest or riot was
under way. Other groups were formed by amateur musicians dissatisfied
with the limitations of the band tradition and discovering they
could play the popular music they liked on the instruments they
were playing in the bands. Still other groups were formed to accompany
the open air animations of theatre and image being presented at
festivals all across the continent. In many cases, the simple fact
of an obvious need for loud, portable music that the tradition,
because of its inborn conservatism, was unable to meet, gave rise
to interesting band alternatives.
The English political theatre group, Welfare
State, is a good example of a combination of these impulses.
Blowzabella in the south of France were presenting dynamic open-air
spectacles with live acoustic music in the early 1970's. The Fanfare
v.d. EersteliefdesNacht in Amsterdam grew out of Carnival revelry
into a voice for political action.
Many of the amateur alternative bands found inspiration in the european
alternatives to the American tradition of jazz ‘big bands’.
Groups such as the Willem
Breuker Kollektief in Holland, the Vienna
Art Orchestra, Hannes Zerbe’s Blech Band in East Berlin,
the Mike Westbook Brass Band in England, Pierre Doerge’s New
Jungle Orchestra in Copenhagen. These groups were very actively
engaged in proposing exciting and distinctly european alternatives
to established traditions and provided valuable encouragement to
amateur groups.
Currently, the movement of alternative bands in Europe has grown
into a tradition of its own. Some groups are celebrating 20 years
of existence, gatherings of bands are organized every year, more
bands are forming and even some professional groups are being established
to explore these alternative directions in bands. Film makers and
festival programmers have been attracted to the colorful presentation
of the alternative bands and the bands themselves have been producing
a wonderfully varied and energetic body of recordings.
In the US, alternative bands outside of the scholastic pep bands
for athletic events seem to exist more for the performance experience
and seem rarely to be driven by a social consciousness. Groups such
as the Get A Life Marching
Band in Portland, Oregon are very obviously composed of ex-scholastic
bandsmen continuing the enjoyable activity of playing in the band.
The Seed & Feed Marching
Band in Atlanta, Georgia have their roots in street theatre
and maintain a very strong theatrical sense. The phenomenon of 'clown’
bands seem to be more rooted in the tradition of live circus bands
that were a staple of the many nomadic circus’ operating throughout
the US up until the 1960's. Typically a ‘clown’ band
will wear ‘clown’ costumes and do ‘clown’
acts. Research indicates they don't put a very high premium on rehearsing
and building repertoire, but the experience seems to be important
to those who participate. Their players are often made up of people
who played in college or high school eager to relive the experience.
 Recently
other groups have emerged exploring some still more alternative
directions - Hungry March
Band in New York City presents an unholy cacophony impossible
to ignore and Extra
Action Marching Band in San Francisco, evidently fueled by more
sex and drugs than is healthy for most people, plays a high energy
version of band music that should be an inspiration for anyone imagining
the future of these groups.
On a professional level, just a few of the groups that have grown
out of the alternative band movement include:
The Brasshoppers
and Bollywood Brass
Band in England, the latter growing out of an amateur interest
in the music of the brass bands of India.
L’Occidentale
de Fanfare from Bourdeux, France mixing the folk music and instruments
of their native Languedoc with jazz rhythms and sensibilities.
Les Miserables Brass Band in New York City seems not to be functioning
any longer but in it's time was composed of some of the most accomplished
professionals of that center of the universe and played an exciting
mix of original material and various world brass band styles.
Tatara,
from Hamburg, seems not to have roots in amateur alternative bands
nor the slightest hint of social consciousness, but remains one
of the benchmarks for musical excellence in band alternatives with
their tight, crisp execution of inventive arrangements, very professional
improvisors and powerful rhythm sections.
Because the economic realities of keeping large ensembles naturally
make them difficult to operate on a professional leval, there are
many more and very fine smaller performing ensembles presenting
various aspects of world band culture. The films of Goran Brecovic
provided an introduction to the Serbian band tradition for audiences
and musicians alike and several groups have formed during the past
15 years exploring those sounds. One of the oldest is Zlatne
Usted Balkan Brass Band based in New Jersey, USA, has produced
several discs and has been invited to the festival of Balkan Bands
in Guca, Serbia several times. Slavic
Soul Party is based in New York City and uses various Balkan
brass band styles as a point of departure for a wonderfully energetic
exploration of brass possibilities.
 During
the last 20 years a resurgence of interest in the New Orleans tradition
in the US has resulted in some of the most exciting developments
in wind and percussion ensembles. Groups of young players such as
Youngblood
Brass Band from Madison Wisconsin, Soul
Rebels Brass Band and Rebirth
Brass Band from New Orleans, Brass
Monkey Brass Band in San Francisco and Black
Bottom Brass Band in Japan are taking inspiration from the earlier
revivalist bands such as Dirty
Dozen Brass Band and mixing those sounds with hip-hop sensibilities.
Rapid fire poetry, usually dealing with important social issues
get combined with powerful funk and soul powered jazz into an infectious
and unstoppable mix.
From Germany Schnaftl
Ufftschik in Berlin plays an exciting original music based on
a blend of various middle european styles and Top-Dog
Brass Band from Dresden is adapting New Orleans sensibilities
to their own brand of German funk.
Click on the links below for mp3 files of some of the groups mentioned.
Selected examples of Alternative Bands: |
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