Salinas, Thursday, April 8, 1999 --

The San Jose Metropolitan Band played at the Association of Concert Band's national convention. Here is a synopsis of the day's event:

This our big day -- playing at the Association of Concert Band's national convention in Salinas, California. We've been rehearsing for weeks, and the time had come to give it our best. We congregated together at Valley Christian H.S. waiting for the charter bus. You could just feel the excitement level in the cold, crisp air.

We made good time on the way down to Salinas. The weather had looked pretty ominous, but we seemed to have avoided most of the showers, with occasional hail and snow! Vern Chatfield, one of our french horn players, treated us to sandwiches and cookies from the Good Earth restaurant he manages...thanks Vern!

We arrived the Salinas Community Center at the rodeo/exposition grounds, joining others of our group who traveled by car. Really a very nice facility. Since we were the first of three bands to perform that night, we took advantage of the opportunity to get set up on stage and do a short warm-up.

There were more people in attendance than we had envisioned. After a short break, we assembled on stage and did some last minute tuning. The lights dimmed and we received our director, Mr. Greg Bergantz. The baton was raised, as were our instruments. ...and a lot of butterflies.

The downbeat came, and we were on with the music. The program included Army of the Nile, San Kenton in Concert, Porgy and Bess Selection, Morning, Noon & Night, Ashokan Farewell and Overture to Candide. Given the significance of the event, the band seemed to rise up to a higher plateau in its performance.

SJMB In Concert

We had the opportunity to listen to the two other community bands performing that evening. The Pleasanton Community Concert Band had a nice blend and very good intonation. They featured a song introduced by a moving poem written by a young RCAF pilot in WWII.  The other band was The Capitol Pops Concert Band from Sacramento and, as the name suggests, they played all pops-type tunes. They are just beginning their third year, and have a program to include well-qualified students in their membership. There was an excellent solo by the lead trombonist doing an arrangement of "Blue Moon".

The evening lasted a tad longer than was planned. We rushed to our bus for the trek home. Amazingly we arrived by 11:30 PM, the planned time. Such an exhilarating and rewarding day in the life of the San Jose Metropolitan Band!

-Don Abel