Clarion Brass Choir - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Holiday Versions
Bing Crosby is responsible for seasonal music as we know it.  In 1942 he recorded “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” [1] which was featured in the film Holiday Inn. [2]  The next year he released “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.” [3]  It was written from a soldier’s point of view. [4]

The prosperity that followed the Depression and World War II was met with songs that celebrated the here-and-now, rather than the deferred hopes of hard times.  Starting with Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” [5] in 1949, each year saw a few new seasonal records.  Most lasted one year, but some like “Rudolph” were recorded by other artists. [6]

As radio stations developed to play the most popular single records in the 1950s, demand grew for songs to air during the holiday season.  Part of this was driven by advertisers who wanted to have their spots accompanied by appropriate songs.  Elvis Presley recorded the first important album devoted to seasonal music. [7]  Albums like his allowed stations to play popular artists with more variety.  Like most, Presley introduced one new song, “Blue Christmas,” [8] and filled the rest with familiar songs including both of Crosby’s.

Holiday recordings, which first were recorded by Big Band artists and then country music ones, spread to every genre as radio stations were established to cater to niche markets.  Classical music artists find it a particularly useful opportunity to become known.  Most of the year, records by unknown artists compete with ones by better known ones for the few available time slots, but at Christmas demand outpaces supply.

The Clarion Brass Choir of Spokane, Washington, was organized in 1992, and soon began scheduling a December concert.  It produced its first CD in 2000, [9] a second more ambitious community project in 2003, [10] and a third group venture in 2005. [11]  Then, no more.  After all, how many holiday tunes can any one group record without repeating itself?

The organizer, William Berry, had an answer.  He uploaded a video of the group playing 54 Christmas songs in 3.5 minutes in 2013. [12]  It sampled everything from the “Hallelujah Chorus” to “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.”  He included a few carols, but not “Silent Night.”  Its slow tempo would have dampened the festive tone.

2013 also was the year the group made one more Christmas recording.  This one included their version of “Kum Ba Yah.”  Berry begins with a nod to the legend the song came from Africa. [13]  Paul Raymond strikes a syncopated rhythm on two, small cast-iron bells. [14]  An African-style drum enters a few seconds later.  The drum stops when the horns begin playing, but the metallic rhythm continues until the last note.

The trumpets begin with a fanfare that resolves itself into John Blocher, Jr.’s tune on the refrain that ends the line.  That becomes the pattern: brass virtuosity in the statements, and echoes of the original melody in the refrains.  They only play full harmony on the final lines of each iteration.

This is different than the usual brass band or jazz arrangement that begins by playing a recognizable melody, then indulges itself in variations that are further and further removed.  The original tune becomes a mere excuse for dexterity. [15]  Berry’s alternation of the unexpected statements and familiar refrains is closer to the changing statement-constant refrain structure of the original song.

Berry believed they could “play on the atavistic and institutional memory of those tunes” that one hears “once a year or several times a year every season for your entire life.” [16]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: none

Instrumental Group: four trumpets, four French horns, three trombones, one tuba [17]

Rhythm Accompaniment: Paul Raymond, gankogui; Michael Moon Bear, African-style drum [18]

Instrumental Director: Adam Wallstein [19]

Credits
Arranged by William Berry [20]

Notes on Lyrics
There are none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: obscured
Tempo: quick
Rhythm: syncopated

Basic Structure: variations that emphasize the last line and refrains rather than the opening melody

Ending: none; it stops suddenly

Notes on Performance
Cover: red with silver trumpet bell [21]

Audience Perceptions
Brass ensembles tend to take themselves far too seriously, as if the audience is expected to savor every single note to its fullest.  Tempos verge on lugubrious.  A reviewer who, no doubt, has been sent scores of CDs by aspiring brass musicians, agrees.  He said:

“Over the years, I’ve heard quite a few collections like this - Christmas music in original arrangements for brass - including some by top groups like London Brass. This is the first one that I thoroughly enjoyed.” [22]

Notes on Performers
A photograph of the Clarion Brass Choir published in 2014 showed three women in the group: two played French horns and one played trombone.  The rest of the players were men. [23]

Paul Raymond is the group’s percussionist.  He began classes at Eastern Michigan University, but moved to Spokane and Eastern Washington State at the suggestion of a professor. [24]  Later he studied African drumming with Nigerian-born Babatunde Olatunji. Raymond plays with the Spokane Symphony and Moko Jumbie. [25]

Berry began trumpet as a child, and played with the “First U.S. Army Band, stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland,” from 1975 to 1978.  After his time in the military, he earned a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance from Indiana University in 1982.  He was living in Washington state by 1988 where he played trumpet with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra.  He is now first chair with the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra. [26]

He says he “was inspired to do the arrangement from teaching Kum Ba Yah to a young beginning trumpet student.  It is a simple, straightforward song, so is included in some beginning band books. [27]  This particular student was struggling with it for a couple of weeks and I was reminded in working with him on it what a strong tune it is and decided to make a big, bold version of it for Clarion.” [28]

Availability
CD: Clarion Brass Choir.  “Kum Ba Yah.”  Reindeer Games. [29]  2013, privately produced by William Berry’s Figaro and Company, LLC.  Also, available as an MP3 file.

End Notes
1.  Bing Crosby.  “White Christmas” / “Let’s Start The New Year Right.”  Decca 18429. [30] Recorded 29 May 1942, released 20 July 1942.  78 rpm.  Written by Irving Berlin. [31]  ASCAP ranks the song as number 11 on its list of most performed Christmas songs.” [32]  Amazon reports Crosby’s version is number five on its list of songs most requested on its digital service. [33]

2.  Holiday Inn.  Directed by Mark Sandrich.  Paramount Pictures, 4 August 1942. [34]

3.  Bing Crosby.  “I’ll Be Home For Christmas (If Only In My Dreams)” / “Danny Boy.” Decca 18570. [35]  Recorded 1 October 1943, released 1943.  78 rpm. [36]  Amazon ranks its sales as 61 in 2021. [37]

4.  “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”  Wikipedia website.  Johnny Mathis’ 1958 version revived the song as a holiday standard.  Mathis also recorded “White Christmas” and “Blue Christmas.” [38]

5.  Gene Autry And The Pinafores.  “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer” / “If It Doesn’t Snow On Christmas.”  Columbia 38610.  Released November 1949.  78 rpm. [41]  ASCAP ranks the song as number 9 on its list of most performed songs. [42]

6.  Among those who recorded it are Bing Crosby in 1950, [43] Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1960, [45] and the Temptations in 1968. [46]  The most popular version this year on Amazon is one by Burl Ives [47] from a television special for children. [48]

7.  Elvis Presley.  Elvis’ Christmas Album.  RCA Victor LOC-1035.  Released 15 October 1957.  [Discogs entry]  The recording industry organization that certifies record sales [50] lists this as the best selling Christmas album of all time. [51]

8.  ASCAP ranks “Blue Christmas” as number 17 on its list of most performed Christmas songs. [52]  One consequence of its popularity is one of my neighbors strung flashing blue lights along the eaves of his roof for the holidays.

9.  Clarion Brass Choir.  Nutcracker Suite Dreams.  2000.  CD, privately produced by Figaro Tunes.

10.  The Candlelight Singers, Spokane Area Children’s Chorus, and Clarion Brass Choir.  Angels.  A cantata by William Berry.  2002.  CD, privately produced by Figaro Tunes.

11.  Clarion Brass Choir  A Partridge in a Pear Tree.  2005.  CD, privately produced by Figaro Tunes.

12.  Clarion Brass.  “We Need a Little Christmas.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Clarion Brass on 1 December 2013.  Included on Reindeer Games.

13.  For more on the legends about the African origins of “Kumbaya,” see Patricia Averill. “‘Kumbaya’ and Dramatizations of an Etiological Legend,” with John Blocher, Jr.  Voices 46:26–32:Spring–Summer 2020.  See Abstracts tab for more information.

14.  A gankogui is a clapperless pair of bells joined by a neck that is beaten with a stick.  Because they are cast-iron, the tones are duller than they would be if they were brass. [53]

15.  One example of this kind of arrangement is John P. Zdechlik’s "Faces of Kumbaya," which is discussed in the post for 9 September 2018.

16.  William Berry.  Quoted by Nathan Weinbender.  “Clarion Brass, A Tradition of Creativity.”  The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, 19 December 2014.

17.  William Berry.  Email, 12 December 2012.  He says “Clarion is structured on the standard brass and percussion sections of a symphony orchestra.”

18.  Berry, 2021.
19.  Notes for Reindeer Games.  Figaro Tunes website.
20.  “William Berry - Composer & Musician.”  Figaro Tunes website.

21.  The use of the bell is an allusion to the song “Silver Balls.”  It was introduced in a Bob Hope film [54] and popularized by Bing Crosby. [56]

22.  Barry Kilpatrick.  Review of Nutcracker Suite Dreams.  American Record Guide, November/December 2002.  Quoted by “William Berry.”

23.  Photograph that accompanied article by Weinbender.
24.  Cheryl-Anne Millsap.  “Paul Raymond.”  Spokane Symphony website.

25.  “Paul Raymond, Percussion.”  Holy Names Music Center website, Spokane, Washington.

26.  “William Berry.”

27.  School band arrangements of “Kumbaya” are discussed in a series identified by the keyword “Pedagogy.”  They begin 11 July 2018 and continue through 26 August 2018.

28.  Berry, 2021.

29.  Reindeer Games is taken from “Rudolph.”  An early line that describes the red-nosed reindeer as an outsider says the other reindeer never let him “join in any reindeer games.” [57]

30.  Discogs entry.
31.  “White Christmas (Song).”  Wikipedia website.

32.  “Christmas Music.”  Wikipedia website.  ASCAP is the licensing organization, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.  Their list may not include songs handled by other organizations.

33.  “The Top 100 Most Played: Holiday.”  Amazon website, accessed 10 December 2021.  Many songs are missing from this list because people already own copies.  It has a number from children’s programs who, by definition, are new listeners.

34.  “Holiday Inn (Film).”  Wikipedia website.
35.  Discogs entry.
36.  Wikipedia, I’ll Be Home.
37.  Amazon.

38.  Johnny Mathis.  “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”  Merry Christmas.  Columbia CL 1195 [39] recorded 16 June 1958, released 6 October 1958. [40]

39.  Discogs entry.
40.  “Merry Christmas (Johnny Mathis Album).”  Wikipedia website.
41.  Discogs entry.
42.  Wikipedia, Christmas Music.

43.  Bing Crosby.  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” / “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic.”  Decca 88050.  Released September 1950.  78 rpm. [44]  This was brought to my attention by Wikipedia, Christmas Music.

44. “Bing Crosby - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  45 Worlds website.

45.  The Chipmunks With David Seville.  “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.”  Liberty 55289.  Released December 1960.  45 rpm.  [Discogs entry]  This was brought to my attention by Wikipedia, Christmas Music.

46.  The Temptations.  “Silent Night” / “Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer.”  Gordy G-7082.  Released 27 November 1968.  45 rpm.  [Discogs entry]  This was brought to my attention by Wikipedia, Christmas Music.

47.  Burl Ives.  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  Original Sound Track And Music From Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.  Decca DL 34327.  Released 1964.  [Discogs entry.]

48.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Shown 6 December 1964 on NBC. [49]
49.  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV Special).”  Wikipedia website.

50.  “Recording Industry Association of America.”  Wikipedia website.  It began certifying sales in 1958, so I suspect “all time” means since 1958.

51.  Keith Caulfield.  “The Top Selling Christmas Albums of All Time.”  Billboard, 24 December 2013.

52.  Wikipedia, “Christmas Music.”
53.  “Gankogui.”  Grinell College Musical Instrument Collection website.

54.  The Lemon Drop Kid.  Directed by Stanley Lanfield and Frank Tashlin.  Paramount Pictures, 2 April 1951. [55]

55.  “The Lemon Drop Kid.”  Wikipedia website.

56.  Bing Crosby And Carol Richards.  “That Christmas Feeling” / “Silver Bells.”  Decca 9-27229.  Released 1950.  45 rpm.  [Discogs website.]

57.  Lyrics by Johnny Marks. [58]
58.  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Song).”  Wikipedia website.