The Uptown Brass is Ben Wade, trumpet, left, Lori Braatz, French horn, Matt Mullin, tuba, Bill Bunker, trombone and Craig Harris, trumpet. Photo by Sam Williams
I guess every city deserves a few weapons of brass destruction, and now we have our own — Uptown Brass.
The new quintet — Craig Harris, trumpet; Ben Wade, trumpet; Lori Braatz, French horn; Bill Bunker, trombone; and, Matt Mullin, tuba; — appeared at the Susanville Church of the Nazarene Friday, May 11 with a crowd-pleasing, 10-song, foot-tapping set sure to satisfy any lover of brass.
All proceeds from the show went directly to the Susanville Symphony’s Academy of Music that provides free music instruction to musicians of all ages and abilities. Wade conducts the Susanville Youth Orchestra and Harris directs the Susanville Wind Ensemble.
Uptown Brass performed “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” by J.S. Bach; “Largo” (from “Zerxes”), by George Frederic Handel, arranged by Walter Barnes; “Eye of the Tiger,” by Frank Sullivan and Jim Peterik, arranged by Leandro Cardosa; “Andante” (from “Trumpet Concerto”), by Franz Joseph Haydn, arranged by Walter Barnes; “House of the Rising Sun,” tradition, arranged by Thomas H. Graf; “Toreador Song” (from “Carmen”, by Georges Bizet, arranged by Walter Barnes; “Viva la Vida,” by Coldplay, arranged by Thomas H. Graf; “Smooth Criminal,” by Michael Jackson, arranged by Seb Skelly; and, as an encore, “Yesterday,” by Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
