For its spring concert, SoMiSPO (Southern Mississippi Steel Pan Orchestra) welcomed famed steelpan artist Andy Narell, one of many artists the band brings in annually for its popular program. The concert took place on March 22 at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center on the university campus and featured a set comprised completely of pieces composed or arranged by Narell, showcasing the band’s ability to perform the music at its highest level.
The concert was a rare feat for the band, which has developed a strong reputation since its founding in 1994 by director, Dr. John Wooton. The group has grown over the years to reach 30 players in size and has featured some of the most renowned steelpan artists in the world, including Andy Narell, Jeff Narell, Ellie Mannette, Robert Greenidge and Liam Teague, among others. Despite those names, this concert held a special place with all those involved considering the level at which the band executed the difficult repertoire.
“The concert was probably the best thing we’ve ever done here. The band was really prepared before [Andy] got here. He said it was possibly the best college concert he’s ever been a part of,” Wooton said. Due to the stylish nature of the arrangements, Narell’s pieces require both intensity and relaxation to pull-off as he intended, which added to the difficulty of the performance, according to Wooton. “It’s like a jazz vocalist laying back when the rhythm section is tearing it up. We worked on that feel quite a bit. We’re on cloud 9 right now.”
In addition to Narell, the concert included legendary jazz percussionist, Bill Summers, soloing on congas. Thanks to the school’s close proximity to New Orleans (only an hour-and-a-half drive away), the band plays regular host to musicians on the same as Summers. The next concert, which features the percussion ensemble and takes place April 4, will feature Cuban-born percussionist, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, along with Summers again. Wooton is proud of the hard work his students have put in to prepare for a multi-concert semester, but is well-aware of where it started.
“It didn’t start this way. I’ve been here 24 years. It takes a while but things start to happen,” he said. “It’s just about building the quality, getting noticed and having the upper administration see that putting money into something like this will get public attention. It’s also great for recruiting.”
While one might think that students would get burned-out from the constant rehearsals and classes involved with being percussion performance majors, Wooton says the band pushed to add another performance of the spring concert’s repertoire to their slate, considering how much they loved it.
“It was their idea, I made the phone call,” Wooton said. “There’s a bar here called ‘The Thirsty Hippo,’ with a stage where people can dance and hang out. It’s a lot of fun and is a different environment. They say yeah because they know we’ll bring in a couple hundred people. In the past we’ve done a lot of outings with small ensembles.”
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the students, the concerts, including another with the steel band on April 30th, are being recorded and sent out live via Livestream for those unable to attend in person.
“I have two former grad students who are still here; one is a great sound man and one is a videographer. The sound guy plays double seconds. He did the video for the concert and we used his Livestream channel,” Wooton said. “I have a Youtube Livestream channel and it costs me nothing. Once you have over a thousand subcribers you can Livestream for free. You can pay for it otherwise. He had like 12 cameras on that gig; we’re going to put the concert out on DVD.”
Selling the concert will contribute towards paying future guest artists, which can get expensive without financial support. Thankfully, the success of the program receives some financial support, with the remaining funds found through concert admission fees and a variety of other means.
“We didn’t make a lot of money on the concert, maybe $1500. The school of music pays for the artist fee, the percussion studio pays for their expenses and the ticket sales go towards any remaining expenses,” Wooton said. “Honestly, we look for every rock and stone for money. We ask, beg, borrow and steal. It’s nice when people take notice and offer money.”
The Narell concert is currently available for viewing in its entirety on Livestream’s website, which keeps the recordings up for viewing for 30 days after the concert takes place. The concert can be viewed at: http://livestream.com/accounts/10631994/events/5037934.
For more information on SoMiSPO and Dr. John Wooton, visit www.johnwooton.com.
SoMiSPO performs “Two Brazilian Steel Dances,” which was featured in the “Concerts and Performances” section of the Vic Firth website at vicfirth.com/two-brazilian-steel-dances-ney-rosauro/. The performance features two student improvisors, which is also taught to students in the program.
