The Original All-American Sousa
This past weekend a news release from Associated Press caught my eye. November 6, 2004 was the 150th anniversary of John Philip Sousa’s birth. The great “march king,” once the most famous American musician alive, is now largely neglected, at least as a “serious” composer. A number of his marches such as Stars and Stripes Forever and Semper Fidelis are still enormously popular, but not much else.
The newspaper article goes on to say that Sousa’s complete archive of compositions and arrangements is housed at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. During his long career Sousa composed 137 marches, 5 overtures, 15 operettas, 11 suites, 24 dances, 28 fantasies, and 322 arrangements of 19th century symphonic works for band. Today, of these hundreds of entries, we hear only a few of the more famous marches. One would think that there ought to be at least a few other musical gems to be mined from this mass of musical material stashed away in Illinois.
Fortunately, for Sousa’s sake, we at Delos can boast of being well ahead of the curve. Delos’ CD DE 3102, The Original All-American Sousa. The Original All-American Sousa featuring Keith Brion and his New Sousa Band, offers a generous sampling of thirteen Sousa marches, famous and less well-known, all played by Keith Brion’s re-creation of the authentic Sousa touring band (In fact, in live concerts, Brion often conducts costumed and made up to resemble old photos of the real John Philip Sousa).
As a bonus, the album includes a number of historical “acoustic” recordings of the real Sousa band, dating from 1917–1923, plus a half-minute introduction spoken by Sousa himself in 1929.
It all makes for a very exhilarating mix.
Now, what about those 15 operettas, 5 overtures and other works? When will some group take the plunge and give us a chance to hear a few of them? Hopefully before the Sousa Bicentennial in 2054.
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