Street Bands & Processions
Street Bands
Street bands flourish across the world. They are strong, rhythmic and functional bands playing for processions, outdoor dances, ritual and civic occasions dances, fairs and accompanying outdoor theatre and circus. The two most common are forms are percussion/drum ensemble as typified by the samba band so popular in Britain today and the mixture of wind, brass and percussion that characterises Tongues of Fire. Here is a brief over view of these wind, brass and percussion bands.
The outdoor band has been a key element in English traditions, examples include medieval dance bands, the Waits bands of the Tudors and Stuarts, and the rural wind bands of the eighteenth and early nineteenth Century, like the 'Scorpion Band' from Puddletown in Dorset. Street bands could be found at fairground and circuses. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries village musicians performed as part of the ‘West Gallery’ church bands and in non-conformist chapels and joined in 'carolling' on Christmas Eve. In the South West, Wales and the North the village bands merged into the 'brass' and 'silver' band traditions.
Throughout Europe many villages and towns continue to have their wind band. In the Balkans, particularly Rumania and Serbia, there is a rich gypsy brass band tradition as typified by the Boban Markovic Orkestar and Fanfare Ciocarlia. Fine examples of Italian street band music can be found in the film scores of Nino Rota, especially his work for Fellini (Amacord is a great example). Rota also wrote music for La Banda, a remarkable CD by Pina Minafora. On La Banda (Enja Records ENJ 9326) Minafora pays tribute to and updates his southern Italian band heritage with arrangements of Bizet, Verdi and Piccini plus new works by Rota, Dutch jazz maverick Willem Breuker and the French tuba player Michel Godard.
Europe had a street band revival in the 60's and 70's. Inspired by this working class music making tradition and by the Brecht collaborators Eisler and Weill, radical street bands sprang up in Holland, Germany, Italy and Britain, playing for protests, street theatre and strikes. The Dutch band Orkest de Volharding (the word means 'perseverance') was founded in 1972 by composer Louis Andriessen and saxophonist Willem Breuker (again). In Britain the pioneering theatre company Welfare State International worked with musicians like Mike Westbrook, Lol Coxhill and Luke Mishalle, creating a strong, 'rough and ready' street band style out of jazz, folk music and song, Latin and South African dance music. Other examples were the Fall Out Band and The Happy End. Yorkshires The Peace Artists continue this tradition.
The USA has always had a strong street and marching band tradition. The village, town and military band was strong throughout the nineteenth century merging with minstrel, Vaudeville and circus traditions. Today you will find more sousaphone players at one college football match than in the whole of England. The New Orleans street band was one of the key influences in the birth of jazz and continued to develop its own unique tradition. St Louis, home of Lester Bowie and his family, was also famous for its brass and marching band traditions. Another remarkable tradition in the 'states' are the 'shout bands' of the 'The United House of Prayer for all People'. Founded in 1903, the church encouraged mixed race congregations and there were frequent arrests of members for violations of the segregation laws, in fact the church was closed by the supreme court of South Carolina. Shout Bands are trombone bands, inspired by the King James translation Psalm 150. Five or six trombones provide a rich harmonic and rhythmic backing for the lead trombone and 'chaser'. The best example I’ve heard are the McCullough Tigers from South Carolina. Others include Edward Babb and the McCollough Sons of Thunder from Harlem and George Halland and the Happpyland Band from Newport, Virginia.
For more on the New Orleans Street band and jazz download
'Didn't they Wander'- some thoughts on the the New Orleans marching band and the birth of jazz
Street and brass band traditions are often inspired by and subvert colonial models. From Africa to India and the Pacific new brass band traditions thrive. Tongues of Fire recently performed a double bill with the Jaipur Brass Band from Rajastan. In Surinam whole kazoo orchestras mimic the shapes and forms of trumpets, tubas, saxophones and trombones. Rob Boonjaler Flaes's documentaries and books are excellent introductions to these traditions, although from a Dutch perspective.
Processions
Processions are a vital part of ritual and seasonal celebrations. Rough Musics were an important communal protest, the Wild Hunt is a powerful West Country mythic image, processions with bands, dancing, images and giants marked the Christian and Agricultural ritual year, May Day and Bonfire Night and today Carnival flourishes in Somerset and Devon towns.
For more on the history of English processions download Processions in Engish History
