Use of the Trumpet by Fine Young Cannibals

Here's a song for the trumpet players.

Remakes rarely do justice to the original, but in 1986, the band Fine Young Cannibals released an awesome remake of Elvis Presley's 1969 "Suspicious Minds".

Simple percussion, some good guitar picking, the trumpet, and the highly unusual voice of Roland Gift makes this song worth a listen.

Note:  The black and white shooting of the video, the shiny suits that appear during the bridge, and the colorizing of those suits toward the end of the song were done as a tribute to the late Elvis.

Incidentally, we didn't hear much from Roland Gift after Fine Young Cannibals.  Here is a single he released in 2009:

Keep an eye out for an interview with one of our own trumpet players.

Average White Band Sax

You're probably saying to yourself "Why is our Band Blog posting all of this old music?"  Because it's timeless, and it uses your very own instruments in ways you may never have imagined.  Have any music that fits this criteria, but is current?  Let me know and perhaps we will post it.

Picture yourself in school in 1974 (yea... that's really hard to do.)  You hear this song on the radio.  It's an instrumental, featuring the sax.  The group calls themselves the Average White Band, and fall into the unimaginable music category of "Scottish Funk."  The song goes to the top of the charts.

The picture is of a 45rpm vinyl record, which in prehistoric days was how kids bought music.  A hit single was on the "A" side, and another less popular song was on the "B" side.

Chicago Flute Music

In 1970 the band Chicago released its second album.  Side 3 of the double album contained two songs which became hits, and then this movement entitled "Memories of Love."  It probably took Chicago fans by complete surprise, leaving them in utter shock, perhaps even disgust.  And my guess is that after the first two songs on side 3 were played, the album got flipped over.

Perhaps you will not appreciate the music.  But consider the following.  This was a rock band, and it devoted 9 minutes of their album to this section featuring the  flute  (and perhaps piccolo ?  Help,  Mr. Greeson!)  It was a bold move, and deserves to be listened to, especially if you play the flute.

Beatles Clarinet Music

In 1967,  The Beatles  released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".  This song, "When I'm Sixty-Four," features a clarinet trio  (two B-flat soprano clarinets and a bass clarinet).

And here's an interesting fact.  According to Wikipedia, "The song is in the key of D-flat major. The Beatles recorded the song in C major but the master take was sped up in order to raise the key by one semitone at the insistence of McCartney. Martin remembers that McCartney suggested this change in order to make his voice sound younger."