[Dixielandjazz] National Anthem

[Stephen Barbone]

Best National Anthem I ever heard was several days after 9/11 when I
went to see Arturo Sandoval in concert at West Chester University in
Pennsylvania, USA. He played his own version of latin jazz that night,
all high energy stuff and to my ears wonderful. He also talked about how
much he owed Dizzy Gillespie, and how much he loved his adoptive
country.

Then after his last number he was thanking the audience and a few people
got up to leave. He said, "Wait a minute folks, we have one more number
to play." He turned around a music stand and there was the flag. A hush
immediately followed.

Then he took his fleugel horn and played a mello National Anthem 1st
chorus down in the lower register. Then, switching to trumpet, he played
a chorus in the middle register. Then, he followed that with a third
chorus in the upper stratosphere register.
It was stunning.

All chorus' were "as written", but there was so much timbre and emotion
in those chorus' you would be hard pressed not to call it jazz.
Needless to say, there was an enormous cheer at the end and hardly a dry
eye in the house, including his. Sure, it is a bad tune, hard to sing,
trite, whatever you chose call it, but the way he played it that night,
it surely was magnificent. One of those "live" moments that we all try
and achieve, but rarely do.

Cheers
Steve Barbone