Duty, Honor, Country

This is a traditional military patriotic disk with some items which simply sparkle. The best parts of the album for me were the marches "Black Jack" which I had not heard before and "American Soldier." The brass was flawless and lively - in renditions that made me want to get up and march around myself. Also delightful was "The Official West Point March." The dynamics here were superlative, if surprising. One major surprise was when the main melody was first played 'mezzo piano' with glockenspiel - which at first I found annoying - until the counterpoint replied shortly thereafter - making for truly great excitement. These three marches alone make the album a pleasure to own. The sound quality of the disk as a whole was superlative. Listening to the disk at times I forgot that I was listening to a disk - rather than the band itself.

The voices of these soldiers are extraordinarily beautiful. When I returned from my dreary night-shift this evening, I played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Tears came to my eyes. I felt a human being again, not merely a corporate drudge. Go Army.