4th ASMAC Hangout

More fun times on June 27, 2018 at Viva Cantina in Burbank with the 4th ASMAC hangout and member big band arrangement play-downs.

The 584 big band, under the direction of studio woodwind player John Mitchell, provided an exciting evening of entertainment featuring classic swing arrangements, as well as reading several new arrangements provided by ASMAC members. It was a full house as we also celebrated the birthday of ASMAC board member Charles Fernandez.

After a few warm-up songs, the 584 band performed Time After Time played twice with different arrangements by Michael Sweeney and ASMAC Golden Score recipient Sammy Nestico.

Next up was the ASMAC arrangement play-down portion of the program. The first arranger was the young, and talented, Ethan Moffitt who is the 2018 recipient of the Van Alexander scholarship for arranging. The band was definitely challenged with Ethan’s award-winning composition and arrangement of Window Wonders in 6/4.

Kim Goldsworthy followed with his composition of You Made Her Go arranged by Victor Rodriguez. The Flight 584 band continued by featuring the vocal dual of Gina Cantamessa and Dave Berges. One of the songs they performed was You’ve Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman which was originally arranged by ASMAC member Ira Hearshen.

After the break, The Flight 584 band performed some great swing charts demonstrating different arrangements of the same song. The ASMAC play-downs resumed with Evita Wagner joining the band on piano changing the pace with her ambitious arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody. The audience enjoyed Evita’s exciting production and enthusiastically sang along.

Del Engen provided a fun, original jazz piece and arrangement of The Unreal McCoy. Milton Nelson followed with an arrangement of Beautiful Friendship featuring Dave Hunt on drums and Glen Garrett on Tenor Sax. Keeping the Friendship theme going, Ira Hearshen, who arrived during the break, brought another arrangement of You’ve Got A Friend In Me that was tailored for the new Toy Story Mania ride at the Disneyland Theme Parks. Dave Berges joined in on vocals as the band had fun reading a different arrangement of the song.

If you are an ASMAC member and have an arrangement that you would like to have played at the next ASMAC Viva Cantina Hangout, Please contact: info@asmac.org