And the Band Played On

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Alice E. Grady's Advanced Band students celebrated St. Paddy's Day with a rousing musical celebration for their peers.

Each presentation was preceded by a student musician giving a short introduction and history of the piece. After opening with "The Star Spangled Banner," the wind, percussion and brass instrumentalists performed "Cool Cat Shuffle," a David Shaffer jazz piece that got their fellow elementary students snapping and whispering "Yeah! Cool!"

The mood shifted when flautists Nicholas VanDette, Cristian Barriga, Kristine Rupnarain and Ellen Satin played a soulful rendition of "Danny Boy." The wind musicians injected skillful harmonies and worked in true ensemble tradition, sans conductor.

"Zoot Suit Riot" was next on the program. This unique jazz piece was a combination of three styles of music, Swing jazz, Rock and Ska. In Ska jazz, the rhythm section places accents on the off beats, thus giving the music a different feel than straight jazz.

Rocky Balboa would have been proud of the "Eye of the Tiger" version the band played next. Audience members clapped along to this "Survivor" Billboard Hot 100 Single of 1982.

"Ran Kan Kan" - a Tito Puente percussion and flute mambo piece - featured a cowbell, tom-toms, bongos, maracas and a samba whistle. "More Cowbell" elicited chuckles when a deliberately misbehaving and overexcited cowbell player seemed to bungle things up and had to be kept in check by band director, Allison Shapiro.