American Band Performs at Portsmouth's Glen Manor House [VIDEO]

The American Band performed at their annual summer concert Thursday evening. The concert, sponsored by Newport Fed and hosted by the Friends of the Glen Manor House, was free to the general public and attended by a large crowd.

The band blasted through two, seven song sets with a brief intermission. The set was a wonderful combination of the recognizable (including a medley of Ray Charles songs) and less familiar (such as Henry Fillmore’s Circus Bee).

Highlights included a medley of music from The Lion King (including a fantastic version of Elton John’s Can You Feel the Love Tonight), band member Leland Brown’s vocal performance on Gershwin’s Someone to Watch Over Me, the aforementioned Ray Charles medley and the finale of John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever.

The band was noticeably sharp, displaying the technical prowess and crisp, cohesive playing one would expect from such a long standing act. Throughout the set, they played with a great deal of power and emotion, going through dramatic changes in tempo and dynamics often within the same piece. It was truly the performance of an experienced and professional act.

The crowd showed a great deal of appreciation for the skills of the performers. “I thought it was great,” said Bristol’s Angelo Pirry during the intermission between the band’s two sets.

The concert is annual event held at Portsmouth’s . The American Band has played every year since 1998, brought back each year due to popular demand. Fall River native Jacquelyn Rogers has “been coming for quite a few years now. It’s always enjoyable.”

Peg Brady, the chairman of Glen Manor’s membership committee, elaborated. “It’s something for the town. Glen Manor is owned by the town of Portsmouth and this is an opportunity for us to organize something so the town can see what they own.”

“We have it rain or shine,” chimed in Kate Wilkinson, who along with her husband, Don, serves as the event manager for the Friends of Glen Manor House. “We’ve had to have it in the house before.”  

Conducted by Gene J. Pollart, the American Band is a classic big band, prominently featuring brass, woodwinds and percussion. In fact, they are one of the oldest adult community bands in the country, celebrating their 173^rd season since their 1837 conception. They are “in-residence” at Rhode Island College and play about 16 shows a year in southern New England.

Their set was as follows:

American Band Salute- Roger Cichy

Star Spangled Banner Slava!- Leonard Bernstein

Florentiner March- Julius Fucik

Someone to Watch Over Me- George and Ira Gershwin, vocals by Leland Brown

The Lion King- Hans Zimmer and Elton John

Circus Bee- Henry Fillmore

Big Band Signatures- Arrangement by John Wasson

Intermission

Light Cavalry Overture- Franz von Suppe

The Genius of Ray Charles- Arrangement by Michael Brown

Swing’s the Thing- Arrangement by Warren Barker

Amazing Graze-Traditional

You Raise Me Up- Brendan Graham and Rolf Loveland, vocals by Leland Brown

Brazil Ceremony, Song and Samba-Robert Smith

The Stars and Stripes Forever-John Philip Sousa

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