CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Under the Big Top: 100 Years of Circus Music

by: Great American Main Street Band, Traditional/various

Release Date January 19, 1993
This CD made you feel like you could just sit in the bleachers and watch the band come by. Their circus music was delightful and a great mixture so it was never boring. My husband and I as well as the children and grandchildren loved the CD during a circus party we were having while on vacation.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Grand Sousa Concert

from: Angel Records

Release Date January 18, 1991
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was one of America's best known composers. And he composed a wide variety of works, mostly for wind band. As a wind band member, I've played many of his marches.

You won't have any difficulty finding albums of Sousa's marches. But what about the rest of his works? This fine album includes a few and the Nonpareil Wind Band, under the direction of Timothy Foley, does an excellent job of playing them.

If I had to choose just eight of Sousa's pieces in order to introduce an audience to Sousa, here is what I would select:

El Capitan
Sound Off
With Pleasure
The Crusader
The Free Lance
The Gladiator
Semper Fidelis
The Fairest of the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Silks & Rags: The Great American Main St. Band

by: Tom Turpin, Fred S. Stone, Joseph Ascher, Herbert L. Clarke, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Ludwig Stasny, Walter Milbank, John W. Bratton, Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Mark Gould, Sam Pilafian, The Great American Main St. Street Band

Release Date October 11, 1991
One the most wonderful recordings of all time. Most amazing group of wind musicians I've ever heard. Unmatched collection of compositions mostly from the Scott Joplin era. All of the B side is instrumental selections from Joplin's only opera.