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Composer Robert Lunn accompanied Danny Lopez

Composer Robert Lunn accompanied Danny Lopez

Jared Coller

Jared Coller

Friends materialized onstage in the Lyons theatre like a flash mob

Friends materialized onstage in the Lyons theatre like a flash mob

Jason Gresl, Danny Lopez

Jason Gresl, Danny Lopez

Director of Bands Mark Hollandsworth

Director of Bands Mark Hollandsworth

Danny  Lopez

Danny Lopez played flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet as well as trumpet

Faculty Recital Premieres ‘Aurora’

Published on October 11, 2024 - 3 p.m.

Southwestern Michigan College’s Oct.10 brassy faculty recital, “Danny Lopez and Friends, Too,” treated the audience to the world premiere of Holland composer and classical guitarist Dr. Robert Lunn’s “Aurora.”

“Danny has been asking for the last few years for us to play a piece together,” Lunn said. “I suggested over the summer I write one. It comes from an improvisation I did in concert earlier this year. You have the main theme, a middle section which is a little more chaotic, then it ends with that main theme coming back.”

Lunn, on guitar, accompanied Lopez, who teaches trumpet and also featured flugelhorn and four-valve piccolo trumpet in a program heavy on percussion, including snare drum, vibraphone and Jared Coller’s cymbal crash in the piercing “White on White, capping James Stephenson’s “Vignettes” suite.

The spare “Dinner with Andre” nods to both Louis Malle’s 1981 film written by and starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, and to French trumpeter Maurice Andre.

The Beatles introduced piccolo trumpet to popular music with 1967’s “Penny Lane.”

Half as long as a trumpet and pitched an octave higher, the fourth piston is offset a bit so it can be played with either the right pinkie or left index finger.

“Chasing Igor” Stravinsky, the Russian composer, “is well-known for his technical passages, a lot of articulation and angular rhythms. Stephenson wrote these smatterings of charcuterie percussion designed to be played at an international trumpet conference overseas.

“He had to keep in mind the percussionist would only be bringing what he could in his suitcase, plus a marimba and vibraphone already there at his destination. That’s why he’s got wood block, tambourine, snare drum, a triangle — everything, basically, but the kitchen sink,” Lopez said.

Lopez said “Waltz in Berlin” alludes to both Eric Berlin, the trumpeter for whom the piece was composed, and Viennese waltzes influenced by Germany.

Another in the series was “Running with Lionel,” as in Hampton, with Coller on vibes.

Hampton introduced vibes to jazz playing with Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Quincy Jones.

“He got his start in Chicago playing with Armstrong,” Lopez said. “After he passed away, he earned a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in jazz.”

Lopez played the flugelhorn for “Chuck’s March,” as in Grammy winner Mangione, who broke through on the Billboard charts with the 1978 hit “Feels so Good.”

For the last two numbers, 1993’s “Beautiful Love” by Ray Barretto and Dizzy Gillespie’s 1942 “A Night in Tunisia,” all of Lopez’s friends materialized onstage to create an eight-piece jazz combo, including Lopez; Coller, drums; Lunn; SMC Director of Bands Mark Hollandsworth, trumpet; Jim Grubbs, trombone; Jason Gresl, clarinet; Kenneth Creameans, bass; Jim Allen, Latin percussion; and Glenn McFarland, piano.

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