Mansfield Training School Band UCONN Retarded Children Can Be Helped Rare LP

$

25

 MANSFIELD TRAINING SCHOOL BAND, M51 Very Rare.

Few indeed are the ensembles chosen to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show (ibid: May 17, 1964). Even fewer make it to The White House, and if that same band is invited to play at the New York World´s Fair as well, its caliber must be very high. Such an ensemble is The Mansfield State Training School Band of Mansfield, Conn., which has achieved all these distinctions even though its members are all mentally retarded.

Connecticut has won widespread attention throughout the nation for its pioneering new approaches to the care, training and rehabilitation of the mentally retarded under the leadership of the Office of Mental Retardation in the State Department of Health. The Connecticut plan has won the commendation of the President´s Panel on Mental Retardation as well as that of leading authorities in the United States and abroad. The Mansfield State Training School is the state residential school serving eastern Connecticut.

Consequently, this recording is presented without apology; it needs none. Heard by millions on television and radio, by thousands in "live" performances, and with the accolade of an appearance at the request of the late President John F. Kennedy in Washington, D. C., and a show-stopping performance before an audience of 2500 including several members of Congress and Cabinet members, the reputation of this fine group of youngsters is nationally known.
Music is only one aspect of the training at Mansfield, and not all the students are capable of achieving the techniques needed for an ensemble of the proficiency recorded here, yet all are afforded the opportunity of learning the rudiments of the art under the instruction of five distinguished musicians: Gertrude De Leo, Vocal Instructor; Edward Gerry, Instrumental Instructor; William Nemeroff, Band Director; Glenn Taft, Accompanist and Arranger; and Joseph Romeo, Supervisor of Music.

Francis P. Kelley, Superintendent of Mansfield State Training School is thoroughly aware of the creativity, insight, teamwork and imagination which characterize his musical faculty and has accorded the members unstinting praise. One of the greatest assets of the band is that it gives the band members self-confidence that can be transferred into vocational skills that lead to eventual rehabilitation. The band demonstrates that the mentally retarded often possess talents that can be developed sufficiently to make them self-supporting.

It is not the school´s object to train professional musicians, but rather to provide students with training and an excellent leisure-time outlet both at Mansfield and on return to the community, and to instill self-confidence in students who have rarely before been able to take pride in their accomplishments. Since the organization of the band several years ago, approximately 75 members have returned to their communities.

In addition, the band has accomplished a great deal in making the public aware of the mentally retarded. Governor John Dempsey of Connecticut has hailed the band as his "favorite musical ambassadors." The Governor called the band "living proof that all the many and varied potentialities of the retarded can be realized through affectionate care and teaching." The Governor said that all Connecticut is proud of the state´s progressive programs for the retarded, and particularly proud of the Mansfield State Training School Band.

Fifteen of these students, fourteen boys and one girl are presented here in eleven different selections, all of which feature the ensemble and some of which feature individual soloists. You will find no "big names" on this disc, but you will find big music.

Side "A"

1. "When The Saints Go Marching In". Louis Armstrong, himself a graduate of the Waif´s Home in New Orleans, has described this tune as follows: "Often we´d play at funerals. We´d play sad music when we took them to the grave; then when the brother was buried and we were bringing them back to the Lodge Hall, we´d play swing music because they needed cheering up. No tune was better suited to the return trip than "The Saints" because it was cheerful and promised a glorious hope for resurrection." The vocal of the recording is by "Jeff."

2. "Moon River". There are plenty of people with above average intelligence who cannot negotiate a 3/4 measure as every musician who has ever sat on a bandstand and watched people fox-trotting to a waltz can testify. Yet the Mansfield State Training School Band negotiates this old favorite with faultless aplomb and understanding of its dreamy rhythm.

3. "My Happiness". Again "Jeff" is the vocalist in the appropriate selection. The retarded need to experience success just like normal individuals. A little success and accomplishment provides them with a great deal of happiness. In other words, "Happiness first, all else follows."

4. "Marine Hymn". Most people fail to realize that jazz is best played by a band, not by an orchestra. Indeed early jazz bands had neither piano nor saxophone, let alone strings. The Mansfield group is a band so it should come as no surprise that it can negotiate this well-known march with military precision. The "Halls of Montezuma" and "The Shores of Tripoli" made famous by the renown Marine Band speaks a universal language. The Mansfield Band had the honor of sharing the same bandstand with the Marine Band in Washington, D. C.

5. "Did Your Mother Come From Ireland?" Everyone knows of the late President John F. Kennedy´s Irish forebears, so it is not surprising that the band chose this number to salute the Chief Executive when appearing at the White House in 1963. Just to be different and to add a truly international flavor to an American tune written in praise of the "Auld Sod", the band offered this number in the Latin-American "Cha-Cha" rythm as you hear it in this recording.

6. "Rock Around The Clock". The big beat is primitive and fundamental in all mankind. Rythm is the first musical manifestation by anyone and here we have RHYTHM, the extra "R" not taught to our fathers and grandfathers whose education was more or less restricted to "Readin´ and Ritin´ and ´Rithmetic." A special favorite made popular by the Mansfield Band at high school assembly programs throughout New England.

Side "B"

1. "Instrumental Medley". Coupled in this sequence are two oddly assorted tunes to test more sophisticated musicians than those of the Mansfield Band. The arrangement was made to test their ability to make sudden changes of mood and the results were so satisfactory they are included here. Who would expect to find "You Gotta Be A Football Hero" with its gay collegiate spirit to be followed by the nostalgia of "Shine On Harvest Moon" made famous by Nora Bayes before these instrumentalists were born?

2. "Hello Dolly!" No tune of recent years has met with such instant acceptance as the title song from the musical "Hello Dolly!" Every vocalist and instrumentalist hurried to record it. In this instance one person does both. He´s "Jeff" who is featured both as a vocalist and trumpeter, supported of course by the band.

3. "Third Man Theme". The cinematic "Cafe Mozart" owed much of its atmosphere to a zither player who reverted over and over again to a simple ditty on his instrument. Thus the "Third Man Theme" came to life in a motion picture long forgotten, but the melody lives on, varied in many ways. Here it appears as a "Cha-Cha."

4. "When It´s Sleepy Time Down South". This is another "standard" that seems destined to live forever both at home and abroad. In this particular version, "George" is featured in a sensitive and drowsy trumpet solo, supported by the ensemble.

5. "He´s Got The Whole World In His Hands". This modern spiritual provides the finale and features the entire group. Quite aside from its musical popularity it is a reminder that rich or poor, gifted or handicapped whoever we may be we are all children of God.

John Gruber