Joe Herndon, one of the many Bradford natives who left home and
went on to become stars in their own rights, will be coming home
for the holidays and bringing some friends with him.
Joe Herndon’s Pittsburgh All-Star Little Big Band will perform
courtesy of the Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center at
7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall
at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
Trumpeter and leader of the band, Herndon, now from Pittsburgh,
has brought together some of the region’s best musicians – Steve
McKnight, jazz trumpet; Clayton DeWalt, trombone (who, for this
show, replaces Ross Garin, also a Bradford native); Chris
Hemingway, alto sax; Eric Defade, tenor sax; Rick Matt, baritone
sax; Brian Stahurski, bass; Thomas Wendt, drums; and vocalist Kelly
Defade, he said.
The “little big band,” Herndon said, is considerably smaller
than an actual “big band.”
He said when he was starting out in the business, it didn’t take
him long to realize he wouldn’t be able – at least initially – to
afford to pay the musicians in an full big band.
Herndon’s band has about half the members as a big band, but can
still replicate that big band sound, he said. He went on to say,
however, his band will not be playing tunes from the Big Band
era.
“It’s a more modern-sounding music,” Herndon said, likening the
sound to the Harry Connick Jr. Band.
When asked what’s his favorite piece to perform, Herndon said he
just wrote a piece and the band has not even played it out yet. The
piece, “This is Our Little Big Band,” will debut at the Bradford
concert Tuesday, he said.
“I will be narrating throughout the piece and describe the roll
of each (instrument or musician) including myself,” Herndon said,
“and they will demonstrate.”
A 1995 graduate of Bradford Area High School, Herndon has played
with many other notable musicians, including Little Anthony and the
Imperials, Frankie Valley, Connie Francis, Frank Sinatra Jr., Tony
Bennett, Bernadette Peters and The O’Jays, to name a few.
“Whenever groups come through the Pittsburgh region and need
extra musicians, we get called to play with them,” he said.
Herndon said the musical education he received in Bradford with
the marching, concert and jazz bands, musicals, chorus and music
theory classes “prepared (him) quite well” for his college
experience and career. He graduated from Slippery Rock, he said,
then “took a couple years off and got married” to the former
Christen Lowery, also a Bradford native, and then went back to
Duquesne in 2004 to earn a master’s degree in trumpet
performance.
Herndon counts Maynard Ferguson, Brian and Rick Matt, Doc
Severenson and Harry Connick Jr. among his musical influences, he
said.
In addition to the concert, Herndon will also be conducting a
clinic at the high school with band director Kathy Thumpston during
his quick holiday trip home. Also while he’s here, he said, he
plans to visit with his in-laws, Denny and Debbie Lowery, who he
said were instrumental in organizing Tuesday’s performance with
BCPAC.
