Jazz Ambassador concert features Cranston native

By Jen Cowart
Posted 11/23/16

The Park Theater in Cranston was full on Friday night as the United States Army Field Band Jazz Ambassadors played their final concert of a 40-day tour. The concert, which took the audience on a whirlwind tour of the 100-year history of

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Jazz Ambassador concert features Cranston native

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The Park Theater in Cranston was full on Friday night as the United States Army Field Band Jazz Ambassadors played their final concert of a 40-day tour. The concert, which took the audience on a whirlwind tour of the 100-year history of jazz through its musical selections, had an added bonus for the local audience: a Cranston native playing in his home state and students from Cranston East participating in the opening ceremonies.

Cranston's Sergeant First Class Bradford Danho was featured as a second tenor on the saxophone and also as part of a Dixieland trio where he played the clarinet, and he was given multiple solo opportunities throughout the concert. Danho had friends and family in the audience, as it seemed that nearly all of Cranston came to see him and hear him play, including music teachers from Park View Middle School and Cranston High School East.

Members of the Cranston High School East JROTC program presented the colors for the National Anthem. As the students marched in and onto the stage with the flags, the audience stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.

Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Wood, Director of the Jazz Ambassadors recognized the East JROTC students and thanked them for their participation in the evening's event. He also recognized the Danho's fans in the audience as well.

The concert was a free event and lasted for two full hours with only a short intermission, and consisted of patriotic songs as well as jazz selections highlighting a wide variety of styles, artists, composers and arrangers spanning the musical genre's 100-year history. From early jazz in the early 1900s to 1930, the Swing Era from 1935 to 1945, Bebop and Cool Jazz from 1945 to 1960, to the modern jazz of the present, the concert elicited several standing ovations and an encore. PHOTOS AND CUTLINES Jazz Band 1:

IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

Cranston native Sergeant First Class Bradford Danho had several spotlight performances including this one on the clarinet, during Friday night's Jazz Ambassadors concert at the Park Theater in Cranston. (Herald photos by Jen Cowart) Jazz Band 2:

MULTIPLE TALENTS:

Danho played the clarinet as part of a trio of musicians for a portion of the concert that focused on early Jazz music, specifically Dixieland jazz. Jazz Band 3:

MAKING CRANSTON PROUD:

Several Cranston High School East JROTC students had the honor of presenting the colors for the night's opening ceremonies. Members of the JROTC were also in the audience for the show and were recognized by the band's director during the show. Jazz Band 4:

SECOND TENOR ON SAXOPHONE:

Sergeant Danho was featured playing the saxophone during one of the musical selections, much to the delight to his many fans in the audience who had come to hear him play.

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