By Dave Babbitt – Special to the Sydenham Current
Anyone involved in the types of music that I am is already heavily ensconced in the busiest time of the year: Christmas. I often think of the Christmas music season to be akin to an iceberg. There is so much Christmas activity going on that most do not know about, and it’s been happening since early September, or in some cases, even earlier. Yes, some of us even beat Wal-Mart and Costco out of the Christmas gate!
I consider my seasonal calendar to be much different than that of the average person. Of course, the year is traditionally divided into Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, but I consider my four seasons to be Christmas Music Season, Snowmobile Season (my favourite), Spring Concert Season, and Planning for Christmas and Spring Concert Seasons, which falls in the average person’s summer.
For the Wallaceburg Concert Band, our traditional “Christmas Music” season is well underway but considerably different this year than any other year to date. I’ve been questioning my sanity since we reconvened in September, as I’ve added a mid-October concert that we’ve never offered before. As I write this column, we are a mere three days away from presenting our “Autumn Adventure” concert at St. Paul’s Congregational Church in Chatham, and I’m pulling my hair as there are still so many details to look after.
We’ve been simultaneously working on Christmas music and the music for Saturday’s concert. I believe our musical preparations for this concert to be solid, and I look forward to presenting it. Unfortunately, we had to present this concert outside of Wallaceburg for a few different reasons, not the least of which was that we could not find a venue that was able and willing to accommodate our large band.
In the meantime, I’ve been looking for an appropriate location for the Brass Factory Big Band to present a concert before Christmas.
It’s been well documented in both Dan’s and my columns that Wallaceburg’s only appropriate performance venue, the beautiful Jeanne Gordon Theatre, is now closed to all theatrical and music presentations. The Brass Factory has presented shows at the Jeanne Gordon Theatre in the past, but as it’s no longer available to us, we’re moving on. We’ve decided to take our concert, titled “Big Band Swing and the Christmas Thing,” to the Jim Kish Theatre in downtown Bothwell on Tuesday, December 17 at 7 pm.
The Jim Kish Theatre has some striking similarities to our own Jeanne Gordon Theatre. The theatre is located on the second floor of what used to be Bothwell’s Town Hall, accommodates approximately 177 patrons (very similar to the JG Theatre), and has a nice, small stage that will barely accommodate our 18-piece big band. In no way do I wish to throw the Jim Kish Theatre under the bus, but the JG Theatre is beautiful and modern in comparison. The biggest difference is, their theatre is open for business, and ours is not. In no way do I want to see Bothwell lose the use of their theatre, but how they are open and we are not is truly a mystery.
We are thrilled to take our music to Bothwell, and in spite of the date being relatively close to Christmas, we hope that some of our Wallaceburg supporters will be able to make the trip and join us. We’ll make it worth your while. We are going to make that little theatre rock, swing, and present some great big-band-style Christmas tunes that will warm anyone present. While the Jim Kish Theatre will present some acoustic challenges, we are grateful for the invitation.
Selecting a location to present music of any kind is much more involved than simply finding space to accommodate the performers. For me, the acoustic properties of the room are important, as are the amenities for all of those kind enough to spend their time coming to hear us. It’s important for an audience to be able to see the musicians, and if we had any control over it, comfortable seating for the audience should be a major consideration, but that is often out of our hands.
When our concert band plays in Wallaceburg, the only facility capable of accommodating our 56-member band and equipment is the WDSS Webber Auditorium. I feel bad every time when our audience is forced to sit on narrow, steel folding chairs on a flat surface, making visibility of the musicians difficult beyond the first few rows. On the other hand, those who choose to sit on the bleachers can see much better but must endure sitting on benches with no backrest for a few hours.
Warts and all, we are nonetheless grateful for the ability to present our music indoors at that time of year. Since there isn’t likely to be a theatre built in Wallaceburg in my lifetime that could accommodate our band, we have made a significant investment in tiered staging that will allow the audience to see our musicians better, the musicians to project to the audience instead of the back of other musicians’ heads, and allow the musicians to see me much better. Those attending our WDSS Christmas show on December 7 will notice the improvement immediately.
Before that, however, will be our return engagement to the Capitol Theatre in Chatham on Sunday afternoon, December 1. Two years ago, we took our Christmas music to the Capitol, wondering if anyone would show up to hear us. We weren’t in our own bailiwick, and it was a Sunday afternoon. As it turned out, we were thrilled that the lower level was comfortably full, front to back. For those not in the performance field, seeing an audience of that size makes the band rise to a different level.
Having heard so many kind comments since then, many from non-Wallaceburg folk, we are hoping to fill the theatre this year.
So those are a few of the Christmas activities I’m currently involved in. But again, like an iceberg, there are many other Christmas music activities quietly underway that no one knows about… yet. For example, Pat Lee and Friends have been rehearsing since early September for concerts scheduled for November 23 and 24, and Dan White and the Wallaceburg Brass Quintet are planning another gathering of small ensembles on December 20. I will provide more details as the dates get closer.
In the meantime, get those dates on your calendar, and if you, or a group you know of, is planning any Christmas presentations, please let me know so I can help get the word out in future columns. Wal-Mart and Costco certainly want Christmas on your mind already, and so do I!
