Happy holidays from the St. Clair High School bands

By Jim Bloch

The five bands of St. Clair High School individually delivered nearly a dozen holiday songs to a full house at the East China Performing Arts Center last week and then all the bands gathered as one on the stage for a rollicking version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

The bands’ annual Winter Concert, under the direction of Micah Volz, was held Dec. 13.

Volz took the stage, raising his arm to acknowledge the musicians, and the 51-member symphonic band jumped right into “Project March” by Harold Bennett.

“There’s nothing like a march to get a band to play like an ensemble,” said Volz.

The band then roared into “Train Heading West” by Timothy Broege, the final movement in the composer’s three linked tone poems.

“This is a very programmatic piece,” said Volz. “It’s not abstract at all. It’s imagistic.”

The percussion section imitated the chug of the train’s engine as the brass section blew the iron horse’s signature whistle.

As the big band filed off stage left, the even larger wind ensemble filed in stage right and took their seats. The 65-member band also started with a march.

“Even if you don’t know the name of the song, you know the ‘Washington Post March’ by John Philip Souza,” said Volz.

Then the audience got its first seasonal song of the evening, the classic “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson, a song brimming with depth and special musical effects to create the clomping of the horses, the ringing of their bells and the snap of the whip.

“I’m always experimenting and trying to do something different,” announced Volz after the song. “So we’re not going to use any chairs for the rest of the concert.”

Volz wasn’t quite accurate. Drummer Quinn Achatz, who anchored the seven-member jazz band, got to sit on a stool. The septet played a vigorous mash-up of Keith Jarrett’s “Spiral Dance” and Freddie Hubbard’s “Mr. Clean.”

Middle school band director Scott Fryer sat in on tenor sax and Volz played his trombone on “Sugar Rum Cherry,” Duke Ellington’s playful take on Tchaikovsky’s “Sugar Plum Fairies.”

Ellington should rank among the top five composers of all time, said Volz. He composed upwards of 5,000 songs, more than Mozart or Beethoven. He barely slept and when he wasn’t sleeping or performing, he composed.

The jazz band played a sultry version of Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good,” the Newley & Bricusse song.

The six-member flute ensemble tackled the Nelson & Rollins tune “Frosty the Snowman.”

“This group wanted to put something together for just their instrument,” said Volz.

The symphonic band returned to the stage for “Deck the Halls” and the jazz band followed with “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” The Wind Ensemble flooded the stage for JaRod Hall’s “You Better Sleigh.”

With the bands all standing, a common fashion choice emerged: Nearly a quarter of the women in the bands appeared to be wearing high-top black Converse All-Stars with their black outfits.

The 13-member percussion ensemble woke up anyone catching a catnap with its pulsating “Trinidad Tidings.” The wind ensemble returned for “Away in a Manger.”

“Sometimes the Grinch gets a bad rap,” said Volz. “So we’re going to play one in his honor.”

All of the bands assembled for an instrumental version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

“You’re a mean one/You really are a heel/You’re as cuddly as a cactus/You’re as charming as an eel/Mr. Grinch, you’re a bad banana/Mr. Grinch, with the greasy black peel,” go the unsung lyrics.

The Grinch must have plucked and prettied and changed his peel. The ensemble wasn’t more than a couple of bars into the song when the Grinch himself emerged from the curtain stage left, slinking like a green eel in a Santa suit into the audience to hand out chocolates to all the good little boys and girls.

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.