Fanfare Reviews 
from May/June 2003

Reviews: Sousa

SOUSA Easter Monday on the White House Lawn. Tally Ho! The Last Days of Pompeii. High School Cadets. Manhattan Beach. Solid Men to the Front! Jack Tar. Beau Ideal. Mother Hubbard. Wolverine March. Gallant Seventh. Directorate. Gladiator March. Sabre and Spurs. Flags of Freedom. Rifle Regiment. Hands across the Sea. El Capitan: March and Waltzes. La Reine de la mer • Colonel Lowell Graham, cond; USAF Heritage of America Band • KLAVIER K 11131 (72:43)

Although I have heard that the USAF Heritage of America Band was a top ensemble, this is my first encounter with them. I'm glad to report that my friends did not exaggerate--this is a superb band and this great sounding recording is one of the more enjoyable John Philip Sousa compilations in the catalog.

The selections are balanced between familiar marches like El Capitan, Sabre and Spurs, and Manhattan Beach, and some music that few will have heard, such as The Last Days of Pompeii. This last is great fun--it evokes a real sense of the late 19th century, a feeling of men in straw hats escorting well-dressed ladies on immaculate lawns, pausing in front of the bandstand. The fact that this jaunty, breezy music was originally meant to, in Sousa's own words, give "the suggestion of terror" makes it all the more delightful in its innocent nostalgia. According to the album's expertly written notes by Paul E. Bierley, a renowned authority on Sousa, the composer regarded The Last Days of Pompeii as his finest composition. That it is not, but how pleasant to have it here!

The conducting by Colonel Lowell Graham is terrific. Highly recommended!

James Camner

Copyright © 2003 by Fanfare, Inc. Reprinted by permission from Volume 26, No. 5 (May/June 2003), pages 165-166.

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