Saint Louis Brass Quintet

"A wonderful ensemble"

"Renaissance Faire"
Saint Louis Brass Quintet
with Steven Butters, percussion
Like you've never heard Renaissance before!
More info here

FASCINATING RHYTHMS
[SUMMIT RECORDS DCD 195] more info here
    Gershwin Medley -- Joey Sellers
    Music of Renaissance Spain -- Arr. A. Dean
    Spanish Folksongs -- Manuel de Falla
    Saltarello -- Anonymous
    Dances from the "Pariser Tanzbuch" -- Arr. A. Dean
    Animal Ditties #8 for Brass Quintet -- Anthony Plog
    Four Seasons Medley -- Joey Sellers

POPS
[SUMMIT RECORDS DCD 140]  more info here
    St. Louis Blues -- W.C. Handy
    Cole Porter Medley -- Cole Porter
    Sweet Georgia Brown -- Maceo Pinkard
    When Sammy Gets Blue -- Fischer & Segal
    Ellington-Strayhorn Medley -- arr. Joey Sellers
    Beautiful Dreamer -- Stephen Foster
    I Dream of Jeanie -- Stephen Foster
    My Old Kentucky Home -- Stephen Foster
    Farewell My Lilly Dear -- Stephen Foster
    Camptown Races
    Keystone Rag -- Willie Anderson
    Amparita Roca -- Jaime Texidor
    South of the Border -- Kennedy & Carr
    Viva Autlan -- Unknown
    Adios Beloved/La Cucaracha -- I.F. Esperson
    La Paloma -- S. Yradier
    Mexican Hat Dance -- F.A. Partichela
    St. Louis Blues -- W.C. Handy

COLORS FOR BRASS
[SUMMIT RECORDS DCD116]  more info here
    Four Sketches for Brass Quintet -- Anthony Plog

CARNIVAL FOR BRASS
[PROARTE CDD340] (out of print)
    Carnival of Venice -- Arban
    Maple Leaf Rag -- Scott Joplin
    Le Piccadilly -- Eric Satie
    Facilita -- Hartmann
    Gymnopedie No.1 -- Eric Satie
    Champagne Variations -- Rossini
    Bohemia -- Lamb
    Girl with the Flaxen Hair -- Claude Debussy
    Aura Lee -- Poulton
    Polka from "The Golden Age" -- Shostakovich
    Lassus Trombone -- Fillmore
    St. Louis Blues -- W. C. Handy
    Dixie Medley -- arr. Joey Sellers
    Sousa! -- Sousa

CONCERT MUSIC
[CRYSTAL RECORDS S212] (out of print)
    Rondeau -- Mouret
    Quintet No. 1 -- Thom Ritter George
    Music Hall Suite -- Horowitz
    Air for Trumpet -- J.S. Bach
    Three Sonatas -- Speer
    Four Songs -- Maurer
    Three Salutations -- Jack End

WINDOWS
[CRYSTAL RECORDS S215] (out of print)
    Quintet -- Malcom Arnold
    Windows -- Morgan Powell
    Quintet No. 4 -- Thom Ritter George
    Three Poems -- John MacEnulty
        based on poems of e.e.cummings

    Founded in 1964, the Saint Louis Brass Quintet is one of America's longest standing brass quintets. The group was originally formed by members of the St. Louis Symphony to play children's concerts around the St. Louis area. Soon though, they had expanded to present full length concerts funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Now, forty years and more than 2,500 engagements later, the only original member still in the group -- and the only one who actually lives in St. Louis -- is trombonist Melvyn Jernigan. The other quintet members hold top positions across the United States, and none of them are members of the St. Louis Symphony.

    The group now performs three ten day concert tours throughout the United States each year, plus recording and international touring. The SLBQ was featured at the Norway Brass Band Festival in 1994, at a festival in Bombay, India in 1995, and they performed a two-week concert tour in Japan in 1997. In May of 1999 the quintet toured Mexico, and in October of 2001 they toured Germany. June 2003, they were performing in Sweden.

    It was out of the Saint Louis Brass Quintet that Summit Brass got its start. In 1985, led by trumpeter David Hickman, who was at that time a member of the quintet, personnel were chosen for this new group. Since its first concerts in 1986, Summit Brass has hosted an annual institute for brass players, performed dozens of concert tours in the United States and Europe, and has recorded ten CDs.

above: signing autographs after concert in Japan.

Members of the SLBQ:

Allan Dean, Trumpet -- Professor of Music, Yale School of Music
    Allan lived for many years in New York City, performing with the New York Brass Quintet, the New York Cornet and Sacbut Ensemble. As a top call freelance concert and recording artist he worked with Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and a virtual Who's Who of the greatest musicians and composers of the 20th Century. He is a founding member of Summit Brass, and is also a renowned player of the cornetto in the group "Calliope: A Renaissance Band." He has performed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Casals Festival, Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., Banff Centre for the Arts, and Prairie Home Companion. He formerly taught at the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Indiana University, and he has students in key positions throughout the world.

Ray Sasaki, Trumpet -- Professor of Music, University of Texas at Austin
    Ray is a founding member of the Tone Road Ramblers, a new music ensemble started in 1979 in NYC made up of composer/performers who commission and perform only new pieces. Since 1993 they have been a resident ensemble at the Ragdale Foundation -- an artist colony in Lake Forest, Illinois. Ray has also commissioned many new works for trumpet, most notably with the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, for the International Trumpet Guild, and the Jazz Members Orchestra of Chicago. He has recorded on CRI, Deutsche Grammophon, Ubres, Crystal, Summit, Einstein and TR2001 recordings. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Trumpet Guild.

Thomas Bacon, Horn -- Soloist and Recording Artist
    Tom has held principal horn positions with the Syracuse Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony and the Berlin Radio Symphony, and has performed in "guest" principal positions with the Berlin Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and many other orchestras. He has performed in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, and has been featured soloist on international tours with the Amati Ensemble, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, and Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. He has played with over a hundred orchestras across the United States, at major music festivals throughout the world, and has made ten solo recordings. He is editor of "The Complete Hornist" series for Southern Music Company, and has given master classes and clinics at hundreds of universities and colleges around the world.

Melvyn Jernigan, Trombone -- Executive Director, Primo Concerts
    For many years Mel was Bass Trombonist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, having joined the orchestra right after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music. He is the founding member of the Saint Louis Brass Quintet and is also a founding member of Summit Brass. In addition to his performing duties, Mel manages Primo Concerts, which handles bookings for the Saint Louis Brass Quintet, Summit Brass and The RiverCity Ramblers, a Dixieland jazz group. He is a recording and television producer as well as an arts manager, and has served on various committees and/or boards of the Missouri Arts Council, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, ACUCAA, Young Audiences St. Louis, Summit Brass and Summit Recordings.

Daniel Perantoni, Tuba -- Professor of Music, Indiana University
    Dan, or "Mr. P" as he is called by his students, is a renowned tuba soloist, clinician, chamber musician, instrument designer and master teacher. He has been a featured artist at Carnegie Hall, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., the Adelaide Festival in Australia, the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, the Montreux Brass Congress in Switzerland, and as soloist throughout Japan. He is a founding member of Summit Brass, a member of Symphonia, the Matteson - Phillips Tubajazz Consort, and has released numerous solo and chamber music CDs. Along with Robert Tucci, he designed the "Perantucci" line of low brass instruments and mouthpieces that has become the equipment choice for thousands of low brass players worldwide. He also serves as the vice-president of educational matters and consultant/clinician for Custom Music Company.

Repertoire of the SLBQ:

    The Saint Louis Brass Quintet performs the entire spectrum of great music for brass - from the works of today's composers to Baroque and Renaissance music transcribed for modern instruments. For many audiences they also offer lighter fare: popular music of the Americas, jazz arrangements of standards by Ellington/Strayhorn, Gershwin and Cole Porter, lighthearted pieces for narrator and brass; and a tongue in cheek survey of the history of the brass instruments. The group also presents children's programs, master classes and workshops.
    Trumpeter Allan Dean wrote many of the arrangements played by the group, and composer/trumpeter Anthony Plog wrote two works for the group when he was a member (Four Sketches for Brass Quintet and Animal Ditties #8 for Brass Quintet). Most of the jazz arrangements the group plays are done by Joey Sellers (a former student of Dan Perantoni's).
    On some tours the SLBQ performs with percussionist Gray Barrier on drum set and with an array of smaller instruments. Enhancing the swinging beat of the jazz arrangements, or adding the perfect effects for some of the Renaissance arrangements he provides an element that greatly enhances the quintet's concert presentations.
    The SLBQ sees itself foremost as a serious chamber music group, but also recognizes the importance of education and entertainment in its programming. Finding this balance is an exciting challenge that is vital in keeping both the group's members and its audiences satisfied.

How the SLBQ functions:

   With each of the members living in different cities in the U.S., the only time the group gets to rehearse is when they are together on tour. One day before a tour starts, everyone travels to the city where the first concert will be. There is one rehearsal that evening, and another on the morning of the first concert. Then the tour begins.
    During the tour, whenever there is a day or even an afternoon off, the group will rehearse any music necessary for concerts on the next tour. Parts for any new pieces are sent out weeks in advance. Usually one player will already know the new piece, and serve as "director" in helping the group put it together.
    The driving philosophy of making music with the SLBQ is to communicate through the music - whether in concert or in practice. Rehearsal technique is very simple: lots of playing, not much talking. The group's interpretation is arrived at by mutual respect for each other's musicianship; words are often just not necessary.

Statistics of the SLBQ:
    Group started in 1964
    Over 2,700 engagements in 41 years
    Currently averaging 40 engagements per year (includes workshops, clinics, school concerts and formal concerts)
    8 recordings (2 LPs; 6 CDs)
    over 75 new pieces written or arranged for the group

-- For more information --

Bookings for the
Saint Louis Brass Quintet
are handled by:

Primo Concerts
314-968-9027
800-689-9027