The MarchFourth Marching Band may just make you feel like a kid again
John Averill, bass player and leader of the MarchFourth Marching Band, says the group’s joyous, freewheeling and funky performances are designed with both adults and children in mind.
I’ll go a step further: When I saw MarchFourth, it made this adult feel like a kid again.
Named for the date on which it formed, MarchFourth is a collective from Portland, Ore., that usually performs with almost two dozen members: horn players, a drum corps, dancers, fire breathers, clowns and stilt-walkers. The group plays a few covers, but its material is primarily original, drawing inspiration from jazz and big-band music, rock, funk, vaudeville, conventional marching bands, gypsy and Balkan music, a wide range of Latin, Caribbean and African styles, TV and film scores and the New Orleans second-line tradition.
Averill was one of the five founding members who agreed to learn seven cover tunes for a Mardi Gras party on March 4, 2003. The band exploded from there, he says. “In the beginning, we never really planned out where we wanted to go. This thing has taken off with a life of its own. Leading this project is a lesson in learning how to not over-control the situation. It’s like a chariot with 18 horses, and it took off right out of the gate. The individual players and their influences dictate where we go with it.”
6/2/2010
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