Local Profile: St. Louis Caledonian Pipe Band

Chances are that if you have ever been to a local parade, whether in Downtown or Dogtown, you have either seen or, more likely, heard St. Louis’s Caledonian Pipe Band.  The SLCPB’s 35 members play Scottish piping music for the STL community.  During performances, the band struts in, five musicians per row, wearing archetypal Scottish garb – oh yeah, kilts a plenty! Their 16 pipers precede a percussion section consisting of separate snare, tenor, and bass sections.

The SLCPB is known to cause quite the din of drumming and pipes, reminiscent of The Boondock Saints theme song.  When they’re not playing for the masses on holidays, you can find them teaching piping to students of all ages for free.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt you to check out their video clips via slcp.com.

Upcoming Shows

Sat August 27 – Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park, 12pm

This entry was written by Blair Stiles, posted on August 24, 2011 at 5:30 pm, filed under Local Profile and tagged , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Local Profile: Joia

In Portugese, “joia” translates to sparkling jewel.  The word provides a damn good definition for the band’s colorful blend of the dynamic and wild sounds of the percussion ensemble.  Brazil, Africa, Cuba and Japan’s drum styles are all cited as influences.  Conceived by Rick Kramer, Joia seeks to make their percussion performances as contagious as their derivative South American
culture and as accessible to us as the Slinger.

Joia’s rambunctious influences come together to form a hodge-podge of world culture, causing you to believe you could be an ocean away from home.  Not too bad of an escape from the ol’ Mid-West for a while, and jump into the foreign world we dream of.

 

Upcoming Shows

Sat August 27 – Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park, 12pm

This entry was written by Blair Stiles, posted on August 20, 2011 at 5:00 pm, filed under Local Profile and tagged , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.