Stomp takes music-making to novel new place
Drums and other percussion instruments have long been the bane of parents whose offspring decide to form a garage band.
Thus, the thought of an entire concert of only percussion -- some of which is non-traditional -- has the potential to send some people running in terror.
Streamwood High School's Stomp band is anything but a cacophony of sound. Based on the concepts of Blue Man Group and the musical "Stomp," the band must be heard to fully appreciate the songs that emanate from their performances, for songs they are.
Call it the musicality of rhythm.
Started by Sabre Band Director Jamie Abney, who was a drummer herself in high school and college, the Stomp band is in its second year of operation. Abney wanted to expand the school's musical program, which had endured several years of budget cuts, as well as "do something different."
Different it is.
Stomp is classical percussion, avant-garde jazz, scat, world music, Americana, all rolled up into one.
"I always tell people to think of the cool Pringles commercial where they're popping the lids off the cans," Abney said. "That's what Stomp is like."
The current crop of Sabres participating in Stomp numbers 12, evenly divided between girls and boys. None think it's particularly odd that half are female, playing in what has been a traditionally male-dominated group of instruments.
"I think part of the reason there are so many girls is that this is new," said Staci Williams.
The idea of percussion being the lead -- and even sole -- instruments in a musical piece is not lost on any of the Stomp members. They all say this form is a lot of fun, but it took a bit of convincing to some of their schoolmates, who originally looked askance at the idea.
"Last year we performed during ACT testing, and actually they (the student body) thought it was very cool," Williams said.
Many of the Stompers were already familiar with this type of music.
"I actually saw the 'Stomp' (musical) concert live and I thought it would be cool to perform this," said Chris Waskiewicz.
The Stomp performance program this year consists of three distinct parts. The first involves traditional percussion instruments like tympani, bass and snare drums; and tuned percussion, such as triangles, vibraphones and the like. Tympani, played by Lukas Leckie, actually take the lead melody in the composition titled "The Evening News."
During practice, Abney stops the Stompers often, asking them to play certain sections again and again. In fact, Abney encouraged many of the members to be part of the group to improve their timing in other musical pursuits. Most also play such instruments as trombone, trumpet, flute and viola.
Even for pieces like "Comic Relief," which utilized only hand-clapping, foot-stomping and banging for percussion, the potential to make mistakes is great.
"Make sure you don't mix up your hand claps with your foot stomps," Abney cautioned.
Although the pieces are challenging, it's also fun for the percussionists -- sometimes almost too much fun.
For a piece titled "Barnyard Boogie," the Stompers alternated clapping and banging of sticks with jazz-inflected vocal stylings that imitated the sounds of chickens, cows, pigs, horses, ducks, etc.
It's hard not to laugh when the notes of the "Blue Danube Waltz" suddenly appear while some of the students are hissing like cats.
"It's also very aggravating at times, because everyone is talking during our rehearsals," Williams said.
Then there are the actual alternative instruments, meaning metal garbage pails, a large plastic trash can, large poles and paper bags. The sound of rhythmically passing the pails back and forth, along with pounding on objects of different sizes, produces a melody. Think of the sound of water glasses filled to different levels, but with a more metallic timbre.
The broad smiles on the faces of the Stomp band members speak of their love for what they're doing.
"It's really is a lot of fun," said Will Grimes. "If you have a chance to do Stomp you really should try it."