A Brass Act
Trombone quartet that got its start at Syracuse University Brass Ensemble always on the road to senior living residences, hospitals, libraries, local music festivals
By Carol Radin
“So good! So good! So good!”
Hey, it’s that time. Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” is on. And the audience is right on with it. They’ve gone from sedate to noisy, belting out that “BA BA BA.”
Who started this anyway? It’s those four guys up front, those trombone players. They’re getting a little rowdy too, telling the rows of 70- and 80-year-olds that they’re clearing a space in the front for a mosh pit! All right then!
A Brass Act is in the house and their trombones are turning one small social hall into one big live soundtrack.
For some years now, trombonists Rob Enslin, Clifford Crain, Dave DiGennaro and Steve Button have taken their lively quartet, A Brass Act, on the road to senior living residences and hospitals, libraries, local music festivals and even two minor league ball games.
While all four have racked up plenty of experience in larger ensembles and pit orchestras, A Brass Act has added a whole new dimension to its creative expression and their community involvement. Along with this very original foursome, three other musicians occasionally step in and substitute when necessary: Jim D’Addario, 67, on first trombone; Jim Peer, 53, on second trombone; and Mike Nave, also first trombone and, at 34, the youngster in the crew, as Enslin puts it.
Crain and Enslin got the group together when they met more than 15 years ago while playing in the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble and started playing duets together on their own time. Two became four when Button and DiGennaro joined in on the fun. Soon they “slowly started piecing together some gigs,” Enslin said.
There was no shortage of organizations that welcomed them — The Syracuse Central Library and branches, The Nottingham and other senior living communities, Syracuse’s Westcott Community Center, Skaneateles United Methodist Church and other churches, to name only a few. Even the JMA Wireless Dome and NBT Bank Stadium.
Like all trombone quartets, A Brass Act has three tenor slide trombones and one bass slide trombone. For Crain, DiGennaro, Enslin and Button, the trombone has become their one and only. Why? How to describe in words a sound that transcends words? Crain is actually quite emphatic about it.
“I like it because of its bright tone quality! Four trombones together are a nice well-balanced sound, a perfect blend,” he said.
Button’s introduction to the instrument initially was quite practical.
“I started playing trumpet and the school band director said, ‘gee, we have a lot of trumpets, why don’t you try the trombone?’” he said.
Over time, he discovered the trombone’s potential. “The voice I spoke with through the trombone actually resonated with me.”
DiGennaro likes the horn’s versatility to all music genres.
“It’s the first brass instrument that could play all the notes,” he explained. “It hasn’t changed since the Renaissance. It’s just a bell, a mouthpiece and a slide.”
And yet, what a sound!
“There is a healing quality to the sound,” Enslin said.
That healing quality seems to have become a theme of the many occasions on which A Brass Act has played for others.
“It’s so great to see eyes light up because the music brings on a memory,” Enslin said. “Often that memory is very powerful.”
Whether it’s songs from the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” or selections from the Beatles or Brian Wilson — every Brass Act performance is one of good times and tender moments.
At a recent performance at a memory-care residence for seniors, red and white striped popcorn bags got passed down the rows of listeners and the band broke into a rousing “New York New York.” At first, the audience listened without a word or a motion. That didn’t last long — because Enslin was on stage.
“This is a burning expose about the trombone!” he said in his best “hear ye hear ye” voice.
The horns pepped it up with “Downtown” by Petula Clark, then the theme from the James Bond movie, “Goldfinger.”
Enslin quipped that Crain, the bass trombonist, would be available to sign copies of his memoir, “Sweet Bone Alabama.”
Oh and there was also a “guess-that-song in a medley of songs and you win a prize of three all-expenses-paid nights in the next town over!”
The audience got the jokes. And they got the songs. The faint hand-clapping picked up. Heads swayed, toes air-tapped. When songs from George M. Cohan’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy” burst forth, even the back rows got into the act with some hand-conducting. At the end of the 45-minute performance, the entire audience broke out in applause and most of all, big smiles.
It is those smiles that A Brass Act looks for in its audiences, whatever the size of the room, the age of the listeners and the selection of the songs.
“You have to be a musician to understand what a beautiful reciprocal experience this is,” Enslin said. “As caregivers and family members, we need to be creative in the ways we give to our seniors. I feel I have a responsibility as an artist to share what I have.”
So the band embraces those opportunities to share when it performs at senior residences and memory-care residences. Their many other appearances also extend to the entire community of generations, from the Syracuse VA Medical Center to the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
Enslin, 57, is a classically trained musician who started playing the trumpet, switched to the euphonium and then in the 1980s to the tenor trombone. Since graduate school, he has been involved continually in some aspect of music-making and was a record producer and a touring musician. Touring 150 times a year and playing in cities like Atlanta, where he lived for a time, he said, “You memorized everything! You played whatever was called out.”
That spontaneity is still with him. In any A Brass Act performance, he is the irrepressible ad-libber.
“Eventually I went off the road, cut my hair, got married,” Enslin said.
He is now a writer for Syracuse University’s marketing division and lives in Syracuse with his wife, Laura, a voice teacher and performer. They have two adult daughters. Enslin also plays in Bones East, an ensemble of 30 trombones that performs locally.
According to Enslin, bass trombonist Crain is the band’s resident historian, a meticulous note taker and organizer. Crain can attest to that.
“I’m the kind of person who keeps track of everything on a spreadsheet,” he said. The retired management accountant now keeps records of all of the band’s 800 music titles, every gig and date A Brass Act has ever played or soon will, the 45 musicals he’s personally played for and his own personal schedule of practices and performances. He definitely needs to keep track. He also plays in the SU Brass Ensemble, the Cazenovia Community Band, the Ilion Civic Band, the Oswego City Band and Bones East. He has been in the orchestra pit for musicals in area high schools, who often hire professional and experienced musicians because, as Crane said, “it’s very challenging music.” Of the total 45 high school productions he’s played trombone for, his most recent are “Sweet Charity” at Syracuse’s Nottingham High School and “Suessical The Musical” at Syracuse’s Corcoran High.
“I was at practice or in a performance 19 days in the month of July!” Crain said.
Luckily, the 70-year-old from DeWitt is retired. Although “retired” is questionable. Crane and his wife have four adult children and four grandchildren.
DiGennaro, 57, is the band’s first trombone, so he hits the higher notes. DiGennaro has been playing trombone since his teenage years. In addition to A Brass Act, he plays professionally for some Syracuse Stage productions and for the touring musical productions in Syracuse. In the upcoming season, he will play in “The Sound of Music” in Utica’s Stanley Theater and in Syracuse’s Landmark Theater for the touring Famous Artists’ Broadway productions of “MJ, the Musical” and “Wicked.” In the spring, he’ll be in the pit at Syracuse Stage for “Frozen.” DiGennaro is classically-trained, with an undergraduate degree in music education and a master’s degree in music performance. He will soon retire from the Homer School District where he has been a music educator and band director for 28 years. He and his wife reside in DeWitt and have two daughters.
Button, 62, has been playing with A Brass Act for about 10 years and music has been his lifetime profession as well as his avocation. Button is drawn to orchestral symphonic music and jazz. Over the years, he has found collaboration to be a very important part of his musical growth and expression, something he gets with his colleagues in A Brass Act.
“The interaction with other people is so rewarding,” he said.
Button started playing trombone in the fifth grade and went on to earn his undergraduate degree in music education-performance from Ithaca College and a master’s degree in music education from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. He was band director and general music teacher for all grades in Canastota Central Schools and is now retired after 29 years there. He and his wife, Donna, live in DeWitt and have two adult children. Like his bandmates, he also plays in Bones East.
Having played together a long time, Button, Crain, DiGennaro and Enslin practice only pre-performance to polish their delivery and customize their program to fit the occasion and the audience. Their substitutes, D’Addario, Peer and Nave can also fold right in with ease. Beyond that, the band’s expertise, style and laughter really hit all the notes necessary.
Button summed up the experience best when he said, “Four people who really like to make music and enjoy each other’s company. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Actually, their community of listeners gets that much better right along with them.