Instrumental Projects
Welcome to the 2020 Instrumental Music Final Virtual concert! We’ve got a lot of great music lined up for you this evening (or morning, or whenever you are listening to it) and you are free to browse through any of the recordings we have produced!
Since leaving the school shortly before Spring Break, the students have been working hard, learning how to use recording tools used by the professionals to put together this stellar selection of music! For each song, you will find a set of program notes describing the song and which musicians you can hear throughout each recording.
Although we were unable to come together to celebrate the accomplishments that the Morven Band program achieved this year, the students and I hope that you enjoy the music that we created while quarantined at home. The results have been nothing short of incredible, and the students really put their best foot forward in these recordings. So please sit back, grab a nice pair of headphones, and enjoy the 2020 Final Concert from the comfort of your own home!
**Audio files seem to play best in Google Chrome. Also, if a file won't play, try refreshing the browser.**
The Bands
Beginner/Junior Band
Made up of students who are brand new to their instrument or have experience on an instrument and wanted to help develop the skills of new instrumentalists while honing their own skills. This small, but formidable group has been a blast to work with through the year! With their focus and drive, they have all worked hard to earn a place in the Intermediate Band next year.
Intermediate Band
Made up of Grade 8’s and 9’s, this is an auditioned concert band for our middle school musicians. Although we play our own repertoire, we often join forces with the Senior Band for more challenging music.
Senior Band
The concert band for Grades 10 through 12 is where students have the opportunity to explore more challenging music and skills than in the middle school setting over the course of 3 years. This is the first year that Collingwood has had a full Senior Concert Band in many years.
Wind Ensemble
This group of musicians rehearses off time-table and is made-up of Grade 8 through 12 students who want opportunity to explore music. They often rehearse tour group music and combine repertoire with other groups, such as with the Sr Band this year.
Sr Jazz
As the workhorse group at Collingwood, the Sr Jazz band has been seen this year playing at school events like the Terry Fox Run, the Christmas assembly and even some sporting events in past years. They play an extremely wide variety of repertoire, and are a very competitive group of musicians who take their music very seriously, but enjoy the challenges and excitement inherent in the jazz standards.
Jr. Jazz
This group is designed for students to take concurrently with Concert Band 8/9 to experience more jazz music before having the opportunity to play in the Sr Jazz band by grade 10. We explore many styles of jazz and, this year, we even accompanied the Sr Jazz band down to the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival to compete, and brought home a Gold medal in the Junior Category!
Shalom Chaverim
Shalom Chaverim.wavTraditional Isreali Folk Song arr. Timothy Johnson
Bands Featured: Beg/Jr Band, Int Band, Sr Band, Wind Ensemble
Original Intended Performance: San Francisco Heritage Festival & Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany
About this piece:
A beautiful arrangement of the Isreali Folk Song, this recording of “Shalom Chaverim” features all of the concert bands at Collingwood playing together. We had planned on playing it in honour of the victims of the holocaust from World War II on our tour in Germany, as well as at the Heritage Festival in San Francisco. This was to become the mass ensemble piece that we like to do every year where all of our bands join forces to create a powerful and moving musical experience. Although not the same as being in front of all 90 musicians, you can glimpse the power that this band is capable of through this recording.
Lassus Trombone
Lassus Trombone.wavHenry Fillmore arr. Andrew Balent
Bands Featured: Beg/Jr Band, Int Band
Original Intended Performance: San Francisco Heritage Festival
About this piece:
This is one of the more famous American marches to be arranged for concert band. Since we have 4 trombones in the band this year, we wanted to provide an opportunity for this often underrepresented instrument to really speak out. In this piece, you’ll hear the ragtime rhythms associated with the birth of jazz, and the iconic “tailgate trombone” slides that are so important to the New Orleans Jazz scene.
Spirit of the Wolf
Spirit of the Wolf.wavBob Baker arr. Robert Buckley
Bands Featured: Beg/Jr Band, Int Band
Original Intended Performance: San Francisco Heritage Festival
About this piece:
This is a junior arrangement of Buckley’s more robust “Wolf Song” to allow younger players the opportunity to play music written by a local, First Nations composer. Commissioned by the West Vancouver Youth Band in honour of the Squamish Nation, “Spirit of the Wolf” and “Wolf Song” are the second part of a trilogy written by Bob Baker. We performed the first part of this song sequence at last year’s final concert, and the third installment is set to be released this summer. Our plan was to bring a little piece of Vancouver down to the International Heritage Festival in San Francisco, but we are thrilled to share a piece of First Nations culture with you, our listener.
Festivo
Festivo.wavVaclav Nelhybel
Bands Featured: Int Band, Sr Band
Original Intended Performance: Kiwanis Festival
About this Piece:
Festivo is a standard amongst wind ensemble literature, and with our focus on music from the Holy Roman Empire and Euro-Slavic nations, Nelhybel was a perfect fit. Although technically not the most challenging piece these students have encountered, it requires the musicians to concentrate on their counting and timing very carefully for 5 minutes with its changing tempos, shifting pulses, and asymmetrical rhythms. It is an exciting addition to our set this year!
Radetzky March
Radetzky March.wavJohan Strauss arr. Alfred Reed
Bands Featured: Int Band, Sr Band
Original Intended Performance: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Kiwanis Festival
About this piece:
Radetzky March is a standard performed by the Vienna Philharmonic every year on New Years as a classic Strauss composition. Although it might not be the same in your living room, feel free to clap along when you hear the crash cymbal as is tradition when this piece is played during lively symphonic events!
Wolf Song
Wolf Song.wavWolf Song – Bob Baker arr. Robert Buckley
Bands Featured: Int Band, Sr Band, Wind Ensemble
Original Intended Performance: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Vancouver Kiwanis Festival
About this piece:
This is the second instalment of Baker’s song trilogy, following “The Gather of Eagles” which was performed last year. “Wolf Song” gives our musicians the opportunity to play music written by a local First Nations composer. Commissioned by the West Vancouver Youth Band in honour of the Squamish Nation, we originally wanted to bring this piece with us on our tour of Europe, sharing the music of our First Nations peoples with the rest of the world. Since that is no longer possible, we are now thrilled to share a piece of First Nations culture with you, our listener.
The Happy Wanderer
The Happy Wanderer.wavThe Happy Wanderer – Antonia Ridge & Frederick Moller, arr. Victor Lopez
Bands Featured: Sr Band, Wind Ensemble
Original Intended Performance: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria
About this piece:
Also known as “Val-De-Ri, Val-De-Ra” this popular tune has made it into the homes and hearts of people around the world, young and old. We had planned on opening all of our tour sets with this song in Europe, but we hope that hearing it help transport you to Europe yourself, where you are backpacking through the Alps, singing loudly for all to hear! Please feel free to sing along with this tune, no-one can hear you when you are wearing noise cancelling headphones, we promise!
Before we’d even left for spring break, the jazz bands have had an exceptionally successful year!
On top of hosting our most exciting jazz cabaret yet to date, both the junior and senior jazz bands were able to make it to the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival to compete. After finishing on the podium last year in our school category, the senior jazz band were bumped up to the A category to compete with bigger schools this year and finished in the top half of their field with a strong Silver ranking. The junior jazz band also finished in the top half of their field against ALL other categories with a GOLD medal rating! On top of these two successes, Ilhan Saferali placed 1st in the Solo Jazz Trumpet category AND 1st place in the Jazz Combo A category, giving Collingwood our first two wins at this prestigious festival and kept our name on the LHJF website for another year! Furthermore, he was selected to compete as a showcase performance on the main stage during the final evening concert! Bringing home 3 Golds and 1 Silver, this year was by far our most successful yet at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
There are two sets of recordings you will hear in the Jazz Band section: First, we’ve posted our recordings from the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival for you to hear. Second, since we’ve been away from school, the Jazz bands have been studying jazz combo music, and we’ve got a few of our students’ recordings to highlight the wonderful learning they’ve been doing since we’ve been gone.
Finally, as topics of social justice, equity and activism are closely tied in to Jazz music, our senior jazz band has made the decision to include a short acknowledgement at the beginning of each of their pieces, giving homage to the African American culture that developed the music we play. With everything happening in the world today, the students all thought it was important that we do something to highlight the violence and oppression being fought against around the world right now.
Now, please sit back, relax, and enjoy a few selections of jazz brought to you by your very own, Collingwood Morven Jazz Bands!
Jr. Jazz Band
All songs were recorded live in competition at the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in Moscow Idaho on February 28, 2020.
Hey, That's Mine.wavHey, That's Mine
Paul Baker
A straight ahead swing tune that showed that this band can really jam!
It's Just You and Me.wavIt's Just You and Me
Fred Stride
We wanted to bring some local music down to the festival, so we chose this beautiful swing ballad by Vancouver composer, Fred Stride.
La Almeja Paquena.wavLa Almeja Paquena
George Goodwin
Although we didn’t know it at the time, our favourite group Gordon Goodwin and His Big Phat Band will be headlining next year’s LHJF. We always try to play at least one of their songs every year!
Sr. Jazz Band
All songs were recorded live in competition at the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in Moscow Idaho on February 28, 2020.
How do I look in Blue?.wavHow Do I Look In Blue?
This Stan Kenton chart is a transcription of the Stan Kenton big band’s recording of this chart with a beautiful trombone feature.
Jumpin at the Woodside.wavJumpin' at the Woodside
This arrangement of a classic Count Basie swing band tune was transcribed from Doc Severinsen and His Tonight Show Band’s recording. You will hear Ilhan and Matthew solo on this piece.
Moanin.wavMoanin'
Based on Charles Mingus’ recording, listen for each theme introduced as pairs of instruments jump in every 16 bars until it sounds like complete anarchy! A blast to play, with Ilhan taking a solo in this chart.
Ilhan Saferali LHJF 1st Tune.wavSolar
Listen to Ilhan's winning rendition of Miles Davis’ Solar recorded live at the LHJF this year.
Ilhan Saferali LHJF 2nd Tune.wavMy Ideal
Listen to Ilhan's winning rendition of the jazz standard My Ideal recorded liveat the LHJF this year.
Solo Recordings
All songs recorded during the 2020 Covid-19 quarantine
Charlotte Anderson - My Funny Valentine.m4aCharlotte
My Funny Valentine
Matthew Scrapple From the Apple.wavMatthew
Scrapple from the Apple
Taylor Groundwater - Blue Monk.wavTaylor
Blue Monk
Taylor Groundwater - C Jam Blues.wav