The Master of Histrionic Monkeyshines: Funk Christmas Carols (1976-1977)
In college I was a music major (trumpet). At some point, while playing in a brass quintet, I decided to arrange some popular music at the time as all of our repertoire was classical or modern music. Our quintet used to travel a bit and play at schools around the state, and the introduction of off kilter arrangements of Beatles songs and others provided great entertainment for the students; in most cases these lively pieces got standing O’s as we’d leave them for the end. Then, in my senior year, the university chorus (directed by the chairman head, Professor Godwin) recognized that using choral arrangements with some brass accompaniment added some spice, so sporting our own cars (provided by the school) the 8 of us joined in, comprised of 4 trombones and 4 trumpets. Then he made a critical error or momentous decision, depending on your outlook….”if you guys want to do a solo piece or two during this tour, feel free.” We knew he was expecting some nice brass arrangements of Christmas music but I thought, why don’t I just crank out a few arrangements specifically for our instrumentation. “Godwin’s Gig” was born, quickly followed by “Joy to the World.” If you listen to “Joy” you will notice some chuckling in the audience. To have some fun I decided to orchestrate “Joy” minus one trumpet (me) and conduct. But not normal conducting; I carefully removed a pair of white gloves from my jacket, glancing at the audience as I donned them with aplomb. The conducting started with no surprises for the intro, but when the “funk” portion began I would gyrate, point and even use my feet in the process, emphasizing the individual instruments by leaping around the stage and basically making a fool of myself. We had to practice this quite a few times as in the beginning the players had a hard time playing, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. After we could finally get through the whole thing we sprang it on the chorus and Professor Godwin during a high school concert. I was curious as to the reaction; it would either provide great entertainment and elicit laughter or I would die of embarrassment. As soon as we finished those high schoolers went crazy, as did the chorus itself. This continued for the remaining concerts. The whole tour was capped by the Holiday concert in the main auditorium at the University of Maine (Orono).
We weren’t listed on the program. Professor Godwin told us that, despite providing great entertainment for the schools, this concert was serious and these shenanigans were not appropriate for this audience. Now, I’m not sure this is actually what happened, but someone told me on the night of the concert that the chorus members informed the Professor that they were prepared to boycott if we couldn’t do our bit. Whatever happened, at the last minute we were told we could do our numbers. This time I was slightly concerned that the more senior audience would not find this amusing, but once again I needn’t have worried. The critic for the local Bangor paper who reviewed the concert referred to me as The Master of Histrionic Monkeyshines in his write up. I don’t have a lot of audio that survived my college years, but one of my trumpet player buds did and years ago provided me with what he was able to salvage, finally digitizing these audio files from tapes that were well over 20 years old at the time. The recording of “Godwin’s Gig” and “Joy to the World” was from the concert at Maine’s Hauck Auditorium in December, 1976.
After graduation I opened a studio with 3 friends and taught private lessons, as well as doing clinics and demonstrations at schools around the state. Some of my friends were still at the University so we decided to do a “returning to his Alma Mater” piece, and “Jingle Bell Funk” was born, using the same format (December, 1977).