The Crazy Angel Company


    This one I have wanted to talk about since the listening presentation. I was thinking of including it back then, but chose to wait to make an independent post on it. So this group is called the Crazy Angel Company. They are a performance group in Japan that mixes dance, color guard, instruments, and more together to make an exciting and fun experience! I noticed in a lot of the recordings of their performances, the audience has the hand clappers. I don't know if you remember ever having those as a kid, as a little party favor for example. 


    It's just a very fun experience to watch them perform. It seems like every member of the group is trained to do the various parts of the performance such as the dancing, color guard, and playing an instrument. There is a lot of mixed implementation of the dancing and playing whenever they can, and it's all done live. I find that very cool and something I would absolutely struggle to accomplish. The Crazy Angel Company was founded in 2000, and in the beginning, it seems like the group started as a marching band group comprised mostly of brass, woodwind, and percussion. Over the years, they've expanded their genres of music and mixed them into their formula. This has also led to their expansion of instruments involved, such as guitars and more, but the focus still seems to remain in the brassy marching band style at heart.

    On their site, they talk about three different types of performances they hold every year. The first is the "Sound Theater," which is where the performance focuses on musical storytelling and various theatrics to convey a story to the audience. Second, they have their "Sound Performance." This involves more experimental musical expression, with the goal of giving an experience that can be enjoyed by the eyes and the ears. Lastly, there is "Sound Fiesta," which has them collaborating with other music, dance, or performance groups to give a great experience. Here's a video from one of their performances to give you an idea of what they do. 


Comments

  1. Maxwell GradisherApril 28, 2025 at 3:57 PM

    I find it interesting that brass theater is so much more prevalent in Japan. The concept started in the U.S but really took off in Japan. Even though one of the original brass theater productions (Blast!) started in the U.S and won two Tony awards, it never really stuck here the way it took off in Japan. I'm happy that they're utilizing this really interesting and captivating medium, but I wish it would have taken off here in the U.S as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robert KrauseApril 30, 2025 at 6:05 AM

    I have always been interested in performances like this ever since a friend of mine told me about his experience playing in Japan in the "One Piece" production that he was a part of! It is so cool to see how this trend is alive and well and how there are so many awesome moving elements across the entire production! Thanks for sharing this, it was really cool!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brass Cluster

Image
For this post, I have gathered of small collection of music that has caught my interest while digging around. I made a playlist for you to follow along with each one. A couple of these I want to flesh out further in their own separate posts because there's more to learn from them, but here's what I gathered so far. This first piece is called "A Song for Japan." It was composed by Steven Verhelst as a response to the tragedy that struck Japan with a giant earthquake and a tsunami back in 2011. He also used it as an opportunity to create awareness and charity funds for the people affected. If you look it up there are hundreds  of recordings over the years all over the world. Verhelst originally wrote it for trombone but made various versions for other instrumentations such as brass ensembles, quintets, wind bands, and more. A Song for Japan (2011) Steven Velherst (b. 1981) Tokyo Brass Symphony The next is the "Princess Kaguya Suite" composed by Keiko Takashim...
Read more

Welcome!

Image
 Hiya there! Since you've stumbled upon this humble little blog, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm Neile, I'm in the midst of getting my master's degree at the Univerity of Iowa for the french horn (aka the coolest instrument on earth). I also really love tennis, it was a major part of my childhood along with music, but that's just a fun tidbit of my life.  To give you some backstory to this blog, I honestly took a painstakingly long time trying to develop the name for this blog and how I would theme it. There were so many ideas and blog themes I had in mind and wanted myself to follow and it was exhausting, to say the least. I eventually came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to simplify my ideas to something more flexible and open for me to change if needed. This is the result! The blog is called "Endless Discovery" named after Japan's tourism slogan. Back in 2010, the Japanese government started an initiative to help gro...
Read more

La Traviata and the Saxhorn

Image
    I was listening to the Italian Brass Band playing Traviata Overture , which was very interesting. When looking into the group and the recording, I learned this piece is from an album the Italian Brass Band made, where they played various Overtures from Giuseppe Verdi’s Operas, but arranged for brass band. For a little synopsis of the opera La Traviata , the story is about Violetta Valéry, who is ill and will die very soon. She is introduced to Alfredo Germont at a party, and we find out that for a long time he has actually been interested in Violetta. She falls in love with Alfredo for various reasons, and Alfredo at the end of this party, confesses his love for her. This leaves Violetta conflicted between her current life and this potential true love. She ultimately chooses a life with Alfredo, and wanting to provide for Violetta, he goes away to Paris to get money. While he is absent, Alfredo's father attempts to convince Violetta to leave Alfredo, and while refusin...
Read more