With the Riverbank High School version held the week before, the music department of Cardozo Middle School presented its own version of a winter concert this past week, entitled “Winter Memories.”
The program featured 14 pieces of music, including a few seasonal tunes, performed by three versions of the bands, ultimately involving over 100 young musicians, led by David Howard.
The evening opened with performances by the Cardozo Eagle Band: ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ followed by ‘Banuwa,’ a Liberian folk song, and ‘Peach Blossoms, a Chinese folk song.’ The first segment, ended with ‘Rock Around the Clock.’
The Eagle Band was then joined by members of the Advanced Band to play ‘Boundary Road March,’ ‘Chant and Celebration,’ and ‘Intermediate School Fanfare.’
The third part of the program consisted of seven tunes, with members of the Beginning Band joining in.
‘Baby Jaws’ led off this section, followed by ‘Jingle Bells,’ and ‘Hard Rock Blues.’ ‘Cousin Louie’ was next, then ‘Rock Point Five,’ and ‘Zombie Stomp.’
Band Director Howard told the audience that he couldn’t tell if the Zombie title meant they were stomping on zombies, or just doing a stomp dance with them.
The evening concluded with the combined bands playing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’
The performance was held in the Community Gymnasium on the Cardozo Middle School campus.
The audience, including parents, friends, school board and other community members, filled the bleachers on both sides of the gym, including standing room only in the end of the building at the entrance.
In an interesting set up for the bands, the concert area was set up in one large mass of chairs, with the percussion instruments at the rear. Set up with the requisite distancing required these days, the band area took up just about half the gym floor.
When the performance started, the Eagle Band was seated in the center of all the chairs. As the Advanced Band was added, they took up seats around the first group. Then, when everybody was ‘on stage,’ the Beginning Band added its members to the outside seats remaining, completing the 111 player musical group.
Howard said the school year started with band students having to have classes outside to maintain social distancing required by COVID protocols, and wasn’t sure whether there would even be a concert this semester.
Along the way, he found a source for special masks for some of the musicians that allowed for a slot where they could play their instruments without taking the masks off.
