I am several days late in chronicling Mary Kay's and my trip up to Lehigh University for the opening gun of our Jamestown-400 celebration.  It was such an extraordinary experience, that words cannot capture the feeling.  But since you all have been so helpful in running down historical stuff for me, I'll try.

The main reason was the concert Saturday night where about 2/3 of the Jamestown music was played and recorded.  That in itself was an experience to warm the cockles of this 74-year old Virginian's heart.  The Director, David Diggs, had Mary Kay and me stand up at the beginning of the concert, and ascribed to me everything Virginia, except handling the anchor of Capt. Newport's ship.  He noted that my ancestor was at the 1807 Jubilee (which was a bit of a stretch since Joseph Carrington Cabell had no offspring, but what the heck -- cousins even several generations removed count in Virginia.)

To us, the high point of the concert -- even above and beyond an awesome performance of David's arrangement of James Horner's music from the movie The New  World  -- was the re-creation of the 1807 proceedings, beginning with a funeral march, then followed by toasts to such as Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Capt. John Smith, Pocohontas, Fair Virginia, etc. right out of the official record.  A drama-major, costumed as an early 19th century Virginian, delivered each toast with a champagne glass in hand (reminded me of my old days at The University), which was followed by a short selection of the re-created Capt. Nestle's Norfolk Artilley Band... e.g. Hail Columbia, To Anacreon in Heaven, Jefferson's March, and the real surprise which caused me to look at the original proceedings as soon as we got back, YANKEE DOODLE played after the final toast:

"....................May each return of this National Festival, give new energy to the Patriotism of Virginia."  

Yankee Doodle and VIRGINIA!!!!!  In retrospect, and particularly in light of the coming-together of the North and South agenda of the 1907 celebration, that is a very nice touch which I had missed.

But the real treat was the 6 hours of recording sessions on Sunday.  Those 60 young men and women put their whole hearts and energy into it.  WOW, I thought the Saturday evening sounded good, but David went back and re-did everything, and re-re-redid troubling sections until they were perfect.  Thanks to the age of digital recordings, you and I will hear a seamless performance, although it may really have come from a dozen or so takes.  He even had half a dozen BIG cymbal crashes recorded in case he wanted to put them in somewhere.  We particularly enjoyed 'The Birds'.  If you recall from the movie, it opens with the sound of birds, then a soaring French Horn, anchored by lower brass chords.  The entire percussion section was armed with those little ceramic bird calls that you put water into and blow, and they made a minute or so of those Virginia birds, which will be superimposed upon Horner's music.

I talked with a number of people, and came away with two major observations.  #1, at the risk of playing the Pharisee (Thank you, Lord, that I am not as other men are...) there is, nevertheless, an aura about Virginia and people therefrom. Thinking back, I remember experiencing a similar thing decades ago when I visited friends in London, England, and was introduced to their English acquaintences as "...our friend from Virginia."  ...Not 'The States' or 'America'.  I can't put my finger on it, but the aura is there.  

#2, the not-so-good news, there was absolutely no awareness of Jamestown 2007 of all.  Several people said, "They should advertise and let people know what is going on, so we could visit."  This echoes my conversations with Company Governors of the venerable Jamestowne Society, from as far away as Mississippi, Texas, and Washington State, not to mention just local non-publicity in my little corner of Virginia out here near Winchester.  Its not from the lack of a lot of good people working on JTown-2007.  But the proof of the pudding is that a simply TERRIBLE JOB is being done in raising the awareness AKA Selling Jamestown, what it means to our lives today, and on a more mundane basis, any details of celebration.  If any of you good readers out there want me to come down and stand before a tribunal which has power to do something about it, and wave my arms around (after of course sounding a fanfare on my trumpet), and talk about how REALLY BAD it is, let me know.  My perception is that nobody is really 'in charge.'  There is no single site to which a person can go for a complete picture.  You have to go to the Colonial Williamsburg site to buy tickets, and once you are there they are difficult to find.  (That was 4 weeks ago, so maybe things have improved.)  But folks, we are fewer than six months away from this once-in-several-lifetimes experience for all of us.  

Thanks, again, for your help and support.  Over the next couple of weeks, the Jamestown music will be mixed and edited.  It is scheduled to go to Disk Makers the week before Christmas, and I understand that they have a special skeleton staff alerted to get production underway.  The CD is on schedule for the third week in January.  I'll end up with 600 or so in my basement, so shall appreciate help in moving them out :))  

Randy Cabell
The Trumpeter of Jamestowne

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