We’re Number Two. Again. Crap. No Pun Intended.

The 2010 North American Brass Band championships are history and the Georgia Brass Band, for the third time in four years, placed second in the first section, falling once again to the Central Ohio band.

That’s a hell of a sentence, that is.  Let me try to explain it for the brass neophytes out there.

The North American championships are held annually (they were in Raleigh, North Carolina, this year) and there are a number of different divisions, called sections, in the competition.  I think that in Europe a band is assigned to a section based on their previous competing success (correct me if I’m wrong on that, Al); but in North America, each band that goes to the annual championships (which is basically the only competition we have) chooses which section they want to be in.  Most bands try to be realistic about this choice. 

The top bands compete in the Championship Section.  These groups are often made up of college music professors and graduate students, professional or semi-pro musicians, and generally people who make their livings musically.  Fountain City, out of Kansas City, MO, won the Championship section – for the fourth year in a row.  The FCBB (BB=”brass band”. I’m not going to type it after the name of every band I mention, so just assume that it’s there) was only founded about 8 years ago, but has stormed onto the brass band scene in a major way.   Along with their (I believe unprecedented) four straight wins at the NABBA championships, they’ve also won the US Open three years running (different sort of championship); and a few months ago, they became the first American band EVER to win a major European competition when they took the Scottish Open and shocked everyone.  Coming in second in the Championship section were the kids in the James Madison University band.  A new band, Potomac, made up of a lot of folks who play in the Washington, D.C., service bands, took third. My favorites – Chicago – came in a disappointing fourth place.

Just below the Championship section is the First section, in which the Georgians have competed for the last 4 years.  Bands in this section are comprised of a smattering of musically-dependent people (maybe 50% of our number are music teachers or army bandsmen) along with a generous number of people like me – the unlucky dorks who, for whatever reason, didn’t pursue a career in music but manage to do alright for themselves in that area through a combination of talent, luck and an overabundance of low-paying church gigs.  Three years ago, Georgia took second (behind Central Ohio) by three points.  Two years ago, Central Ohio took second (behind Georgia) by three points.  Last year, Georgia took second (behind Central Ohio) by three points.  And last weekend, Georgia fell again to Central Ohio – this year by only one point.  Coming in third was Massanutten, a band out of Virginia, I believe.

Below the First section is, quite naturally, the Second section.   These bands are normally either relatively new to the genre (Georgia competed in the second section the first time we competed) or are made up of mostly regular joes with real jobs who get together once a week or so just to play.  The Spires band – out of Maryland, I think – won the section.  I honestly can’t tell you who took the other trophies.

The Third section is, as you might expect, on a slightly lower plane than the Second.  I think the main difference between Second and Third is that the Third section bands don’t necessarily have to have the right horns.  They can use trumpets instead of cornets, French Horns instead of Tenor Horns, etc.  Don’t quote me on that.  I could be completely wrong, as there’s also an “Open” section (I have been corrected on this point since writing this entry.  The 3rd section must use “real” brass band instruments.  Non-standard instruments may only be used in the Open Section). This year, there was only one band “competing” in the Third section, Oakland (out of Detroit, MI).  They sounded great and I enjoyed listening to them.

I heard more bands this year than I have in previous years, partly because Betsy Jones convinced me to take pictures of the bands for the NABBA newsletter.  While doing that, I got to watch Tri-State, New England, Chesapeake, Oakland, Massanutten, Spires, and one or two other bands that I don’t recall.   Later in the day, after Georgia had done our bit, I had to do some volunteer work for the competition, and I ended up leading several bands from the case storage room to the rehearsal room to the stage.  Luckily, that allowed me to listen to some of the really great bands (Fountain City, JMU, Chicago and Atlantic) from backstage.

I must say, for the record, that I’m quite disappointed with our second-place finish.  I heard about half of Central Ohio’s performance from backstage.  They are a very good band.  I think we were better.  The thing that bothers me the most is that the third place band (Massanutten) came in .2 (that’s two tenths of a point) behind us.  I heard them play.  There is absolutely no way they were that close to us musically.  I can almost swallow the judges scoring COBB higher than the GBB until I realize that those same judges putt MBB in the same general area as the GBB.  Georgia and Central Ohio were clearly head-and-shoulders above all of the other First section bands.

But enough about that.  What else have I been doing?  Well, a lot of driving.  As I said, the championships were in Raleigh – about 400 miles from where I live.  I drove up last Thursday morning, arriving at about 5 in the afternoon, got checked into my hotel, and went to audit a NABBA board meeting (to see if I’m really interested in applying for a spot on the board).  The meeting went on until nearly 11 that night, accomplishing little of import other than determining where the competition will be held in 2012 and 2013.  I still haven’t decided about applying.

Anyway, I got back to the hotel late but woke up fairly early on Friday.  Spent most of that day watching soloists and small ensembles perform (the competition isn’t just for full bands), and then went to a performance/mini-concert that the GBB gave on Friday night.  Got home relatively late again, but again awoke early on Saturday.  Went to a cemetery in downtown Raleigh before beginning the full day of banding, which ended near midnight.

On Sunday, I drove back to Atlanta in time to go to a brass quintet rehearsal in the afternoon.  Monday morning, I drove to Macon to shoot at a cemetery, then cruised up to South Carolina to play a concert with the Southern Wesleyan University Wind Ensemble, which is directed by my brother Greg. 

Ran into an old friend from Furman there, Dana Malone, and we might try to get together for dinner or something in the near future.  She’s apparently a writer who does a lot of speaking tours, keeps a strange schedule, and cruises through Atlanta on a regular basis.

After getting home (late again) on Monday night, I went back to work yesterday, got caught up on a week’s worth of emails, then had a GBB rehearsal last night (we’re playing the Deep South Brass Band Festival in a couple of weeks, so rehearsals haven’t stopped).  Needless to say, my chops are shot, and I’m not touching the horn today.

While in Raleigh, my favorite laptop bit the dust.  I wasn’t pleased.  Upon returning to Atlanta, however, I remembered that I had Jenny’s old laptop, which had died a couple of months ago.  I ripped apart my machine, took the system board out of it, put it in Jenny’s, and have managed to build one working laptop out of two previously dead ones.  I’m typing on it now, as a matter of fact.

And that’s pretty much where things are right now.  Hoping to see Chris on Saturday and maybe tour Kennesaw Mountain or catch a movie or just laze around – it all depends on the weather.  I’ve got a church gig Sunday morning – the last one for the music minister, who announced his retirement out of the blue a few weeks ago.  Not sure what that’s going to do to my Easter and Christmas gig schedule.

Need to scatter some pictures throughout this tripe and do some real work.  Everybody take care of themselves.  I’ll try not to let this go for three weeks without an entry in the future.

TWD