The Canadian Brass goes patriotic, not to mention Poppy, on the 108th album, ‘Canadiana’

“Laugh Now Cry Later”, “Senorita” and “I Remember” are songs that you would normally associate respectively with rap king Drake, the romantic partner of Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, and EDM master deadmau5.

An act that you wouldn’t associate them with? Canadian brass.

“However …” Jeff Nelsen, the quintet’s legendary horn, chimed in during a phone interview to discuss the band’s 108th album, “Canadiana.” The project lands on the 50th anniversary of the formation of Canadian Brass … er, 51st actually, thanks to the pandemic.

The “Canadiana” offerings encompass 11 classics of Canadian culture, both expected and unexpected. For example, it will come as no surprise that kd lang’s “Constant Craving” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” made the cut.

But undoubtedly some eyebrows will be raised when one hears Rush’s “2112 Overture” rearranged for trumpet, french horn, trombone and tuba, albeit with guest guitarist Sean Kelly furiously destroying the instrumental track and Emm Gryner drummer Tim Timleck providing the percussion.

Or the Canadian Brass version of “Best Part” by Daniel Caesar of Oshawa and the queen of American R&B HER

“As a Canadian living in America, I always tell people, ‘Oh, kd lang is Canadian. ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen, which was written by a Canadian, ‘”says Nelsen, who teaches at Indiana University and lives in Bloomington.

“And everyone says, ‘Really?’ So we just compiled the amazing music that maybe people wouldn’t know is Canadian and we compiled this list. “

If you’re unfamiliar with Canadian Brass, the word “heavy” is not an accurate description: the current setup of trumpeters Caleb Hudson and Brandon Ridenour, trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos, and sousaphone player Chuck Daellenbach defy the expectations of chamber music, and They indulge in various genres outside of the confines of classical music and generally run and tear it up on stage.

Known for going baroque with their rendition of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” or performing long-haired classics like Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” or Ravel’s “Bolero,” the Brass have also been known to break it up with ragtime, Dixieland, melodies from Broadway and jazz shows. , creating an impressive Juno award-winning legacy along the way that includes sales of more than two million albums.

“Canadiana” may be their first album entirely dedicated to contemporary pop and R&B, but it’s not like they haven’t tackled this territory before with instrumental versions of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”

For “Canadiana,” Nelsen says that each member of the band brought their own suggestions, which were arranged by trumpeter Ridenour, whom he calls “a fucking genius.”

“The order fit in quite well because of how each piece clearly fits into the way we approach the concert schedule. I think each of us brought some of our favorites to the table. We had to have Rush there and Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen were the most obvious. “

While guests on the album range from jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen to songwriting legend Bruce Cockburn, who sings his own “Thoughts on A Rainy Afternoon,” the visitor’s most poignant experience may be the quintet’s version. of Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which combines current members with esteemed alumni, including some founding colleagues who were with Daellenbach when Canadian Brass formed half a century ago in Toronto, though they really started in Hamilton.

“We were trained in Toronto and the Ontario Arts Council was really interested in spreading the music in Hamilton; they needed a music group to get into the schools and get them excited about this program, ”recalled Daellenbach, 76. “So that was our mission and that is what kept us together. We didn’t have to get five separate jobs and meet at midnight to rehearse … I don’t think there was a kid in Hamilton in the ’70s who didn’t listen to the Brass group at some point. “

Daellenbach said the original quintet – himself, trombonist Gene Watts, French trumpeter Graeme Page and trumpeters Stuart Laughton and Bill Phillips – met “standing on the unemployment line” and comparing backgrounds.

“Gene Watts had been to the Toronto Symphony and I had come to Toronto to teach at the University of Toronto. That was my first job in life, ”remembers Daellenbach, who was born in Wisconsin. “Graeme Page graduated from business school, actually, and our trumpeter, who was 18 or 19, was Stuart Laughton from St. Catharines.

“That was our initial group and we spent a year rehearsing and doing some CBC shows, and our first real big concert was the summer of 1971.”

What sets Brass apart, Daellenbach said, was the fact that “we were trying to figure out how to build an audience.”

“We were looking outward, not inward. And we were thinking, how does an audience develop with such a bad brass repertoire? He was very, very skinny when we started.

“So we just took a masterpiece approach and played Bach and Handel, and figured out how to present it in a way that people shared our love of music and brass, and that really set the course.”

The Canadian Brass traversed the planet several times, making their American debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 1975, but what really put them on the map was a trip to China in 1977, which included playing on the Great Wall of China. . .

“That was then Prime Minister (Pierre) Trudeau and a cultural exchange,” Daellenbach recalled. “I think initially it was the Toronto Symphony exchanging with the opera ‘The White-Haired Girl’ from China, and the Chinese got nervous because they hadn’t received anyone for 10 years and they couldn’t see a company of 150 people bring in.

“A very sharp cultural attache said, ‘Well, how about a small group?’ And the game continues: we went to China. “

Daellenbach recalls that the Canadian Brass was brought to a busy hotel in Canton, now known as Guangzhou, and was impressed by the service, with busy maids on his floor. When he and the rest of his companions explored the rest of the hotel, they found it completely empty.

“They opened it just for us,” he chuckled.

A Canadian journalist named Russ Monroe helped make the Canadian Brass an international sensation as a result of that trip.

With Americans not allowed in China, Monroe “was also feeding the New York Times. So that trip put us in the international news. “

The Canadian Brass continues to fill concert venues around the world, having wrapped up a European tour and playing several Canadian and American dates for the remainder of the year, including the Burlington Performing Arts Center on November 26, before heading to Germany. in early 2022..

So what kept Daellenbach in the tuba chair for over 50 years?

“I tell people that I could never find another job,” he joked. “It has been a lovely life. You can’t predict such a race and you just enjoy it while it lasts. So I’ve been very, very lucky. “