Matt Lowe, right, and the Fall Creek Brass Band celebrates its debut CD "Mad Fun" at The Haunt Friday, July 30 at 10:00pm. Photo by Heather Ainsworth
EVEN THOUGH MATT LOWE WAS JUST GRADUATED from high school this past spring, the trombone player and leader of the Fall Creek Brass Band has had a lot of gigs under his belt. His group, a 13-piece band that includes four trumpets, three trombones, a few saxes, a sousaphone and a drummer, performed a benefit for New Orleans Hurricane Katrina survivors earlier this year, and marched in the Ithaca parade for the third time in three years. They have also has recorded a debut album, titled “Mad Fun,” and this Friday, July 30 the band will hit The Haunt for their record release party. Admission for the 10:00pm show is $5 at the door or $12 for entry and a copy of the CD.
Two things instigated Lowe to start Fall Creek Brass Band a few years back. The first was a visit by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Youngblood Brass Band. The second was the observation at an Ithaca Parade that the only live music was performed by Montessori Marching Band. “I have nothing against Montessori kids,” Lowe said at Gimme! Coffee, skateboard in hand. “But for Ithaca, for a music town, you have to admit that that’s kind of sad.”
“I told my dad that by the next year I would march in the band for the parade,” Lowe continued, “and we made good on the promise.” Fall Creek Brass is modeled on New Orleans bands like Rebirth, according to Lowe, who bring funk to traditional marching numbers.
“Rather than having an atmosphere of freedom, marching bands are often reliant on having everyone following the rules,” Lowe said. “The first freedom in our band is that we can pursue any kind of music that we want. Our trumpeter likes heavy metal and rock. We have some reggae tunes as well.” The second freedom is arrangement, and the approach to many well known songs are as fresh as the band’s originals.
“Mad Fun” features a few songs by Youngblood and “Hurricane George” by the Rebirth Brass Band, but it also contains a fun take on Beck’s “Cellphone’s Dead” by trombone player Eliot Mangini, a reworking of Lupe Fiasco’s “Daydream” by drummer Chris Armitage, and a straight rundown of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.”
The Fall Creek Brass Band tailors its shows to the venue, but only to an extent. “We march in the community parade for Memorial Day,” Lowe noted, “but rather than play patriotic tunes, we play fun tunes. We love to improvise, in fact, once we have the melody of the tune down, the rest of the music is based on improvisation.”
“We’re definitely really excited about the record release party; there have been a few new originals. At the show we’ll be playing originals. It’s not going to be us playing the album straight down, we’re going to be showing what we’ve been doing since,” Lowe said.
Following the group’s record release party, the band will have a number of gigs in August. On August 7, it will perform the Courtland Arts and Wine Festival at 3 p.m., and then head down to Castaways to open for Alan Rose’s CD Release Party at 9 p.m. On August 14, the band will play the Dryden Lake Festival at 3:30 p.m., and then open for Rochester’s Po’ Boys Brass Band at 9:30 p.m. at Castaways.
“I had this crazy idea that we could go on a tour for two weeks down to New Orleans, and meet up with a brass band down there,” Lowe mused at Gimme! “And so I stayed up very late a few nights ago, and I researched potential routes, and potential performance venues, and contacts, and when I pitched it to the band, they were all into it.
“So the latest big news with the band is that it looks like we’re going to try to put together a tour for next summer.”