July 29, 2012

The final concert of the 2012 summer series by the Karl L. King Municipal Band of Fort Dodge was held on Sunday evening, July 29 at the Karl L. King Band Shell in beautiful Oleson Park.  The popular Brass Quintet, Jive For Five, performed a pre-concert show before the regular municipal band concert.

A variety of marches, classical works, and popular selections were featured during this performacne.  Several selections by Karl King were played, including his circus march Sarasota along with Emporia Galop, a circus intermezzo Spanish Romance, and his ragtime two-step, The Walking Frog.

In addition, the King Band performed two marches written by other former conductors.  The recently discovered march by W.B. Green, The Campus Call, and Reginald R. Schive’s Fort Dodge Messenger March were on the program.

This week’s classical selection was Nabucco Overture, by the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi.  First produced in Italy in 1842, it was a sensation and instantly made Verdi one of the most idolized opera composers of his time.  Nabucco was Verdi’s third opera, and is based on the Biblical story of King Nebuchadnezzer.  It is set in the halls and temples and palaces of Babylon and Jerusalem.

Jive For Five, was featured during this concert, as well as before.  Members of this group include Tim Miller from Humboldt on trumpet, David Swaroff from Dayton on trumpet, Kathy Yoakam from Humboldt on French Horn, Dan Cassady from North Liberty on trombone, and Paul Bloomquist from Dayton on tuba.  All these members have been performing together for the past several years, and are always popular with audiences.

Jive For Five joined the King Band in playing two compositions of contrasting styles.  The first selection was Jive For Five, written by Paul Nagle. This collection is a suite of three contrasting song styles.  Their second selection offered a touch of Dixieland Jazz with Dixieland On Stage, a medley of “Royal Garden Blues”, “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” and “When The Saints Go Marching In”.

Next was the Cole Porter Medley, featuring such well-known songs as “Anything Goes”, “Begin The Beguine”, “Night and Day”, “Just One of Those Things”, and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow”.

This final summer concert closed in the traditional circus way, with the playing of Karl King’s march, Auld Lang Syne, followed by our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.