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THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016
Photos by Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group
Prior to the start of this month’s concert, Madelyn Skillings has a laugh with another girl in her row at the Hilltop Auditorium.
Teacher’s ‘Maltese Falcon’ tribute
TAKES FLIGHT
“If you notice, we have one of the
best drum lines around,” said Ilwaco
High School music teacher Rachel
Lake after the song. “They’re always
excited because they get to play differ-
ent things. The two crash cymbal play-
ers, they don’t overpower the whole
band. They control it so well.”
Evan Nation, who plays drums in
both bands, said there is quite a bit of
difference between playing the two
styles.
“The ¿ rst big difference is in jazz
band we play drums on a kit, while in
symphonic band it’s all broken up,” he
explained after the show. “The drum-
ming style is different, because there’s
more rudiments and hand patterns used
on one drum in symphonic band.”
Symphonic
standards showcase
amazing drum line
By DAMIAN MULINIX
For EO Media Group
I
LWACO, Wash. — The Ilwaco jazz
band made history last this month .
No, it wasn’t for the performance of
the world’s longest oboe solo.
The concert, which was split between
the jazz and symphonic bands and per-
formed at the Hilltop Auditorium, featured
the premiere performance of a song com-
posed by Ilwaco Middle School teacher
Matt Lanka, “A Song for Mr. Archer.”
The song, a slow, moody jazz piece,
is named for a character who brieÀ y
appears in the Dashiell Hammett book,
“The Maltese Falcon.” The book fea-
tures famous private investigator Sam
Spade, whose partner is Miles Archer.
“And in the ¿ rst pages of the book
Archer is killed in a back alleyway. I
wanted to write something that was
more µnoir,’ for a detective ¿ ction,”
Lanka explained to the audience prior
to the performance. In honor of this,
senior Michael Johnson rose to begin
the song with a solo while dressed in
an overcoat, similar to the one worn by
Spade. The solo was one of several for
the senior, who said he takes a few dif-
ferent approaches when playing a solo.
“I kind of planned them. On some of
the songs they have recommended solos
and I look at that in the beginning and see
what I can do with those solos,” he said
after the show. “I’ll plan out key parts of
the solo, like ‘I wanna do this and this
in this measure.’ But then there’s other
parts where I feel like doing ‘this’ now,
I’m just going to play that. Just whatever
I feel ¿ ts at the time.”
The drum line
The symphonic band were ¿ rst to
perform and played a set list with vari-
Evan Nation takes a solo during the jazz band portion of the concert.
Telling a musical story
Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group
Ilwaco Middle School music teacher Matt Lanka receives applause after
introducing his composition, “A Song for Mr. Archer,” which was per-
formed by the Ilwaco High School jazz band.
ety . They began with hand claps and
hand shakers for “Jungle Dance,” a
more up-tempo piece. This was fol-
lowed by “The Free Lance March” by
Sousa, where the drum line of the band
had a chance to shine.
For the intro to the symphonic
band’s performance of the song “Cov-
ington Square,” Lake explained how
she challenged the band to come up
with a story that the music would tell.
They decided it was the soundtrack to
a love story.
“They wrote a story about this
lovely piece,” she told to the audience.
“There is a very nice gentleman named
‘Wesley’ and he is a farm boy. He is
walking around Covington Square in
Georgia during the early 1900s and he
spots a very ¿ ne lady named ‘Belle.’
She is of a higher class, and you hear
the interchange between these two
when they ¿ rst meet each other. And
then at the very end you hear the wed-
ding. So now that I’ve told you the
story, hopefully you can hear it in the
music.”
The jazz band ¿ nished the con-
cert with probably their strongest per-
formance, a Latin swing called, “Hey
Pachuco,” which Nation said was his
favorite song of the evening.
“It’s fast. It’s high energy and fun
to play,” he said, without mentioning
the excellent solo he played during
the tune.
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