Dexter Community Band Sets Sail Sunday, March 2 with a Free Concert of Water Music

By Todd Nissen

If there’s one thing Dexter Community Band Principal Trombonist Ben Kessler knows, it’s the blues.

Ben doesn’t have the blues, per se. But Ben, who is also director of the Depot Town Big Band among other music work, can wander from St. Louis to Memphis to New Orleans with ease and virtuosity. Which is lucky for the rest of us, because Ben and his collection of trombone toys will be featured on Slidin’ Down the Mississippi, a musical excursion for jazz trombone and concert band at the Dexter Community Band’s March 2 concert.

The concert will also feature Gichigamiin – The Five Freshwater Seas, a piece commissioned by the band to celebrate its 40^th anniversary in 2022. This will be the first time the band has performed Gichigamiin since its premier two years ago.

The piece was written by Satoshi Yagisawa, a Japanese composer internationally known for his dramatic musical scores. Taking its name from the Native American Ojibwe word for the Great Lakes, Yagisawa drew inspiration from the vivid scenery, moods and maritime folklore that surround Michigan.

If you’re sensing a water theme — you’re not wrong! Director William W. Gourley has charted a musical voyage inspired by the people and legends surrounding our rivers, lakes and oceans. Other pieces being performed celebrate American river folk songs and pirates in that body of water we know as the Caribbean.

The band will also go over The Falls, a rousing piece composed by Rossano Galante. And it will play Sea Songs by everyone’s favorite English composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams, known for incorporating folk song tunes into his diverse compositions.

The free concert sets sail at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 2, at Dexter High School’s Center for Performing Arts, 2200 North Parker Road. The Dexter Community Band plays a total of four concerts during its 2024-25 season. The next concert is appropriately called Summertime, on May 18.