Next sit-in night: October 9, 2012.

To give community members a chance to see what it's like to play in the band, the Roseville Big Band holds sit-in nights twice a year. A sit-in night is a regular rehearsal, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., with the exception that additional musicians join the band for the rehearsal. On sit-in night we play a variety of music, to give our sit-in guests a chance to experience several big band styles. Improvisation is optional, but we give our guests an opportunity to play solos if they are interested. We also sight-read at least one new piece of music on sit-in night so that guests and members will all be starting at the same point as we learn to play the new song.

Sit-in night April 12, 2011, at St. Michael's Lutheran Church.   Community musicians join the Roseville Big Band for a sit-in night. Bigger picture is 55K. Bill Frank Irene Struck, guest Dave Anderson, former trumpeter with Roseville Big Band; guest trombonist Mike Bratlie Bill Pearson Dave Dahlgren, guest Steve Crumley, guest Rich Eyman Harvey Skow Mark Lee Kay Foster Sarah Wasmundt, guest Tim Meyer, guest
  Sit-in night at Roseville Area Middle School.
Sit-in night April 6, 2004, at St. Michael's Lutheran Church. Community musicians join the Roseville Big Band for a sit-in night. Bigger picture is 53K. Glen Peterson Kay Foster Bill Frank Debbie Clapp, guest Mark Stevens, guest Pat Gefre, guest Pat Blyth, guest George Henly Rich Eyman Pat Flahaven, guest Greg Michnay, guest

Sit-in nights are held in the dining room of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, 1660 W. Co. Rd. B in Roseville, about a block and a half west of Snelling Ave. N. The dining room is in the southeast corner of the church, next to the parking lot. Click here for a map (23K).

Please call or send E-mail in advance so we know to expect you.

Some Typical Sit-in Nights

At the October 28, 2008, sit-in night, we had 17 guests, including nine trombone players. Seven guests were attending their first sit-in night. Guests came from as far away as Red Wing, Minnesota, and Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Musical selections for the evening included the first reading of trumpet sub Pat Gefre's first big band arrangement, "All of Me," Mike Bratlie's arrangement of "I'll Remember April," and Glen Newton's arrangements of "Yardbird Suite" and "Monster Mash." They also included Glen's composition, "Dance to the Big Band Swing," which is the Roseville Big Band theme song, as well as several published arrangements.

At the October 18, 2005, sit-in night, we once again had a 12-person evenly balanced sax section, including two guests who attended their first sit-in night, and Carolyn Rosdahl (tenor sax), who had played in the band in its early years. Three guest trombonists and trumpeter Dan Theobald also sat in. We played a number of selections from the band's rich repertoire, including "Falling in Love with Love" and "Carnaby Street," one of the tunes in the Doc Severinson showpiece "Doc's Holiday," which the band performed as part of its concert series in Acapulco, Mexico. Since Halloween was less than two weeks away, we also played Glen Newton's arrangement of "Monster Mash," which includes musical quotes from "Phantom of the Opera," "Rock Around the Clock," "In the Mood," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Pennsylvania 6-5000" (or in this case, "Transylvania 6-5-Oh-Oh-Oh"), "Alley Cat," and "Yakety Sax."

At the second sit-in night of 2004, we had a 12-person evenly balanced sax section, including two guests who attended their first sit-in night. Former band members Fred Christiansen (trombone) and Beth Chapdelane (alto sax, formerly Beth Olsen) were among the eight guests. George Henly played his new 1950's-era Olds small-bore trombone in its first Roseville Big Band rehearsal. The evening included sight-reading Horace Silver's "Doodlin'", with many improvised solos. We also played Glen Newton's new arrangement of "Bei Mir Bist du Schoen" on which guest saxophonist Len Yaeger, bass trombonist Keith Miner, and Glen Newton sang three-part harmony, sort of like the Andrews sisters in a lower key. Other selections we practiced included songs that are on the program for the October 24 concert at Edinborough Park, such as Bob Mintzer's "Computer" and Keith Miner's "Still Love You." As with other sit-in nights, Ann Booth's homemade bars were the culinary hit of the evening.

At the first sit-in night of 2004, band members and eight guests were treated to a second reading of Mike Bratlie's arrangement of "Jordu." Many also played solos on "All of Me," either improvising from chords or playing the melody from a lead sheet. Other activities included sight-reading an arrangement of Bill Evans' jazz classic "Waltz for Debby" and playing the perennial favorite "All the Things You Are" plus several other songs.

The second instrumental sit-in night of 2003 was held October 21. Eight of the 14 instrumentalists who joined the regular members of the band that evening were saxophonists. What a rich sound the sax section had that night! The music for the sit-in included Mike Bratlie's original composition "Casa del Sol," standards such as "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," and several others.

The first sit-in night for 2003 was held April 8, and twelve instrumentalists joined the regular Roseville Big Band members for an evening of playing a variety of music, from Miles Davis' "Four" to trumpeter Tim Altmann's new arrangement of "Tico-Tico."

Unsolicited comments from sit-in night attendees:

"Thank you for the opportunity to play with the band on Tuesday night. It was a great time!"

"Again, thanks for the wonderful experience we all had last night at the sit in."

Former Roseville Big Band director Paul Pizner initiated the sit-in night tradition in the late 1980's. In recent years, we held sit-in nights on the following Tuesday evenings:

  August 4, 1998 March 16, 1999 October 26, 1999
May 2, 2000 October 3, 2000 April 17, 2001 October 16, 2001
April 16, 2002 October 8, 2002 April 8, 2003 October 21, 2003
April 6, 2004 October 19, 2004 April 19, 2005 October 18, 2005
April 4, 2006 October 3, 2006 April 17, 2007 October 23, 2007
April 22, 2008 October 28, 2008 April 9, 2009 October 27, 2009
April 6, 2010 October 19, 2010 April 12, 2011 October 11, 2011
April 17, 2012      

This page was last updated
Friday, June 18, 2021.


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Rich Eyman Greg Michnay, guest Mike Bratlie