Christmas traditions of Canadian Brass

Toronto ensemble heads home for a holiday show

A Canadian Brass Christmas-themed show is now an annual musical highlight of the holiday season, not just in their Toronto hometown, but in major performance halls throughout North America. The internationally popular and pioneering brass music ensemble play Roy Thomson Hall on Dec. 22, and even long-time hardcore CB fans may do a quick doubletake upon their entrance. You see, they will introduce a new member here, the first female to join the group in their 36-year history.
Trumpet virtuoso Manon Lafrance has already achieved great renown as an orchestral musician, teacher, and soloist. She has been a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Principal Trumpet in the National Ballet Orchestra of Canada, and regularly performs with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, and many other major ensembles. Canadian Brass co-founder, trombonist Gene Watts, jokes that “she came out from behind the screen at the audition and it’s a girl. Were we ever surprised!”
Personnel changes are to be expected over the course of such a long career. As co-founder and tuba player Chuck Daellenbach notes, “People come to see us now because there’s a history, a heritage, there. We have these younger players, but they are fitting into a tradition. They also bring another perspective and the chance to look at things from another angle. That’s always a good thing.”
Tandem recently sat down with Gene Watts and Chuck Daellenbach, in the latter’s beautifully appointed C abbagetown house. The pair reflected on a career that has certainly exceeded any expectations they may have had when setting out on this journey back in 1971.
Watts explains that the Canadian Brass mandate has not really changed over the years. “We just wanted to have fun playing music we thought was really good for people to enjoy. I think people feel that we are just there for them. There’s not really any other motivation aside from that.”
Their rare ability to both entertain and educate with their music dates right back to their earliest days. The two musicians met in Toronto, and took their newly formed Canadian Brass to the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra where they became artists-in-residence in 1971, and the players remained members of the orchestra until 1977.
Their early performances were primarily for schoolchildren, and it was in front of this tough audience that the group honed their skills as entertainers.
The group’s sometimes irreverent and humorous approach has not always sat well with the overly-serious classical music critics, but CB has had the last laugh by being too musically skilled to dismiss. Daellenbach notes, “Our Goldberg Variations won the German Grammy Award equivalent, the Echo Klassik, in 2002. In effect, that was the home of Bach validating our brass performance of Bach. That certainly makes life tough for those critics who would dismiss us as clowns wearing silly hats.”
The mix of the serious and the irreverent in Canadian Brass is neatly symbolized by their signature black suits and white running shoes stage attire. They’re frequently known to further enliven their performances by adopting garb to match a piece they’re playing. That can be cowboy hats (and a dress!) for “Hornsmoke (A Horse Opera In One Act)” or tutus for a ballet-based composition. The gold-plated Yamaha instruments are another long-established CB trademark.
The diversity of the CB repertoire is staggering, as they can move from Bach and Verdi to Dixieland jazz to Gershwin to Christmas music with graceful ease. Earlier Christmas-themed albums from Canadian Brass have been strong sellers, and the superb recent release, Christmas Tradition, will be no exception. It features an irresistible version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” a major AC radio hit for the past three years.
“I think the sound of brass at Christmas just works,” says Daellenbach. “When we go to the States, you hear brass in every shopping mall and parking lot.”
There is no resting on their laurels for Canadian Brass. As proprietors of their own record label, Opening Day Entertainment Group, they are now masters of their own creative destiny, and are seizing this opportunity with great zeal. Their current release rate for new CDs is close to once a month, and all maintain high musical and production standards. “In this age where people are talking about the demise of the recording, we are excited about what to record next,” says Daellenbach.
Already scheduled for release in 2008 are Bach, another of their compelling explorations of the music of one of their favourite composers ( to feature both the quintet and a 10-piece ensemble), Legends (to feature CB alumni rejoining the fold), a reissue of their acclaimed 1977 album Unexplored Territory, and a new collection of ragtime material.
Looks like another banner year for one of Canada’s musical treasures.
Christmas Tradition is now out on Opening Day Entertainment. Canadian Brass play Roy Thomson Hall on Dec. 22.u

Publication Date: 2007-12-16
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