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2008 Show Titled:

‘C’est Caliente! Mas Cervezas Frio, Por Favor!’

Mass Brass Caps Run With a 97.17 To Place Second at DCA...by Many Moore

Rochester (AP) Well our boys and gals of summer did not disappoint! The show rocked the house in Rochester. From where I sat, there was a noticeable sound of jaws hitting the floor as the Mellophone line began the show with some pretty quick eighth note runs, followed section by section until the sops ripped a serious statement about 20 seconds in. MB came and laid it all out this Friday evening. I believe there are pieces of MB still on that staging, as they left everything there prior to exiting after no less than 4 standing O's. El Gato Triste was masterful with an absolutely beautiful solo to start it off. The percussion accented the brass to perfection. Next tune, something called Jazzmerelda. Looked high and low and I could not find a single recording of this tune anywhere. Low and behold, it's a Larry Kerchner original. WOW is all this reporter could say. Started with a sweet solo, and a great duet midway through, along with many other great moments. One huge difference I found was these "masters of the bistro" ok, some rotund boys can actually move. Yep, you read it right. No more "cigar store indians" with the group in royal. They moved all over the stage. If you plan on catching them in Albany, don't expect "West Point" style precision in the marching program, but rather subtle moves from set to set. Tasty indeed! The end of Jazzmerelda brought the crowd of 2200 to its feet, only to be blown back down to their seats again for a reprise of Malaga, and when you think you have heard it all, there was more. Gotta get to Albany to see this again. As a side note, I did make my way back to Boston with MB, and this was a spectacle in itself. The plane could not taxi away from the gate until the "ballast" was moved around, ok that was a kind way for the flight attendant to say, Fat people move to the back of the plane. Well one bari player did get up and move, and that's all it took, but there was a near stampede when it was announced that that person would receive two free drinks. The sops sitting toward the front of the plane tried in vane to make its way to the back of the plane. There were no other incidents on the flight, and the bari in question was not found again ..Wonder where they needed that ballast? Well till Albany, this is Many Moore signing off ...remember "Play Hard or Stay Home"!

Mass Brass to Play Kerchner Original

It's Complete

Larry Kerchner has continued to put his stamp on MB! As MB gears up for the DCA and MCA Championships they have added a LK original as their closing number. After hearing MB personally in Harrisburg, LK has written and arranged a jazz

number written specifically for MB's brass line. It's a REALLY cool latin jazz number titled "Jazzmerelda"! This tune will be 3 minutes of notes and notes and did I say notes with some really rangy licks added in. There will be solos, duets,trios, quartets,  :music:  :music: ensembles....well maybe not ensembles, but it's got about everything you could ask 20 horns to play!

MASS BRASS WINS

Harrisburg (AP) - They did it! It was obvious from the get go our boys and gal of summer arrived to take control. Not to take anything away from the competition, by any means. All 5 competitors brought their A game, and this made the eventual win even sweeter. It has been said that to be the best you first have to beat the best, and that is what has appeared to happen. The show was highlighted by an absolutely phenomenal performance by newcomer, percussionist Mike (Sticks) Aiello. At the evening party he wowed the crowd with an extended drum solo that was fantastic.

You can see some clips here:

Malaga

Malaguena/El Gato Triste

Legend of A One Eyed Sailor

Mike....Sticks it to the crowd!

A Legend comes to A Legend!

Legendary arranger Larry Kerchner has arrived to work with the Legendary Mass Brass!
South Boston, Ma. (BP) Last we saw our boys er and girl of summer, they were taking a different tact, still staying in the jazz idiom, but more a straight forward big band type. Now comes news that a true legend from the drum corps world has stepped forward to take the corps to the "next" level. After getting their butts handed to them in Rochester last year, the brain trust met and made the decision to come out of last year stronger. One Larry Kerchner has come to the fold. Larry will be doing the arrangements for the corps. With several phone calls, and some negotiations the "Monster of Music" was thrilled to come back to Boston, where much of his knowledge was kindled at the music factory known as "Berklee College of Music". Larry has written for more corps than can be mentioned here. Most notably The Bridgemen, and The Cabs. The corps will return to an "in your face" drum corps style that made them famous. Mr. Moran said in a phone interview, "personnel has not changed, desire has not changed, only thing missing was a cohesive show design that Mr. Kerchner will bring to the corps". If this is true, look out MCA! Mr. Moran also hinted at another "blockbuster" announcement yet to come concerning a visual package. Stay tuned, this is one corps that has decided to not roll over, but to stand up and be counted!

Here we find Sniper Kitty, and his new "Kingpin". Unfortunately we could only find a sketch of Captain Buzz!

Here we find MB1 in the North End of Boston. Just out of camera shot was the color guard. MB2 was at an undisclosed location. Confused? So am I!

What a Sound!

Mass Brass' Flying Polar Bear Spooking the Bejesus
Out of Pennsylvania National Guard and US Air Force



Pennsylvania Air National Guard State Adjutant General Ren Polaski said at a press conference in early July that the character of the UFOs had changed since last year, including sightings of more conventional aircraft that appear to be the Mass Brass's own air force. "Our own Air National Guard and the US Air Force pilots have both reported seeing a polar bear flying a 1943 Messerschmitt 262, an antique turbojet, in an open cockpit. The polar bear appears to be friendly but our pilots have been instructed drive the bear and his plane away from Scranton if he approaches within 5 miles of the city."

Associated Press reporters in Scranton were rebuffed in attempts to contact Mass Brass spokesmen and spokesanimals. However, a three-month investigation has yielded the following information from public records, interviews with Congressional investigators, NASA officials as well as recovering members of the Mass Brass and exorcists that have worked with families of former and current Mass Brass members:

• The Mass Brass can and do regularly catapult themselves backwards and forwards in time and space using nothing but their music and malt beverages
• The corps has almost no ability to control where they end up in time or space, except for a rudimentary homing capability to "reset" themselves back to the current and closest Monday morning so they can get to work on time
• The corps members' apparent "immortality" is a cheap trick based on their ability to appear to have been "living" during different eras of history. Old photographs and ancient hieroglyphics that record the Mass Brass's appearances all make references to beer, indicating the corps was, indeed, just stopping by for a beer or two
• Mass Brass's sloppy inter-dimensional conveyance creates massive disturbances in the space-time continuum, disorienting psychics, time travelers and galaxy-hopping extra-terrestrials, often resulting in crashes and irresolvable historical paradoxes
• They've attracted the ire of enraged extra-terrestrials, psychics and time travelers who see them as rivals - and as loose cannons that threaten their safety - and who have banded together to stop the unruly peripatetic drum corps
• Though of apparent humble means, the Mass Brass acquired Easter Island from Chile in late 2002 and are using it as a staging area for beer busts and repairs of their dirigible
• The Mass Brass baritones can and do communicate with whales through their horns and regularly communicate with super-intelligent who that are allegedly "starring" in the corps' alleged production of Aida

Scranton Minister of Public Safety Jan Helca Baruk said he had deputized a brigade of Civic Psychics to calm the fans, repel UFOs and squelch the drum corps' awesome psychic capacities. "They've been training for months for this event. The incredible psychic powers of the Mass Brass is legendary and unbound by the constraints of time and space. Pray for us."



Mass Brass Evades Scrutiny, Per Usual

Calls to Mass Brass's offices in South Boston and Easter Island by the Associated Press went unreturned.