Stocking Stuffers
Oregon CDs for gifting (and getting)
by Brett Campbell

MarchFourth Marching Band: Rise Up

Some great live bands just can’t seem to capture their in-person energy on disc. I was afraid that would happen with Portland’s M4, whose joyous performances owe so much to the visual — and visceral — impact of so many big horn toters and percussionists having so much fun, marching into the audience and throwing down.

Of course, no CD could quite encode all of M4’s costumed energy — much less its flag twirlers, stilt-walkers, unicycles, fire eaters, puppets and other accomplices — in little digital bytes. But the two- or three-dozen member collective has miraculously managed to channel its raucous sweat, swing and swagger for home and headphone. Newbies can enjoy this party-ready record for its own sake instead of just as a pale souvenir of a full color concert.

The disk presents almost the full range of M4’s diverse sounds — Mexican brass band (“Contada Ridiculata”), odd-meter Balkan party gypsies (“Simplon Cocek”), throwback Latin big band jazz (“Dynomite”), classic funk (“Freestyle for Miles,” which owes as much to James Brown as to its namesake), New Orleans second line (“Ninth Ward Calling”), gospel rave up (“Gospel”) and unclassifiable hybrids. If Herb Alpert were still running the Tijuana Brass, “Happiness” would be the perfect cover. Some proceeds from Rise Up go to Sweet Home New Orleans, a nonprofit organization that helps the damaged Crescent City’s music and cultural institutions recover from Katrina’s helluva Bush-whacking.