With a dented bugle, he brings dignity
Mike McCann, 14, plays taps at military funerals, then goes off to algebra.
from the April 25, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Almost immediately, it was clear that he was good. "Mike's a very talented kid, one of the best I've ever had," says his teacher, Bill Moffett. "He has a lot of natural ability, and he works hard." Currently Mike plays in a community band with his mother, a clarinetist, as well as in the band at Nipmuc Regional Middle-High School in his hometown of Upton, Mass. Recently he won first chair in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association Central District Junior High Jazz Band.
Technically, taps is a snap for him. "It's how you play it," Mike says. "If you play it short, like bap-bap-bap, it doesn't sound good. You have to be smooth, use dynamics. You want to start soft, and by about three-quarters of the way through, it should be loud. Then it's a decrescendo or a diminuendo. It's about the feeling."
***
After Giordani's service, one of the color guard members picks up the boom box with its prerecorded version of taps. They always bring it to services, just in case, says Chief Petty Officer Christopher Lazenberry, although when Mike is slated to play there's really no need.
"Mike is very poised and well-disciplined. An awesome kid. He does a great job," says Mr. Lazenberry, who has attended a half-dozen services at which Mike has performed. Mike is consistent and dependable – no small feat, according to Lazenberry, considering the environment in which taps is usually played. "It's an honor, but it can be emotionally draining, especially at first," he says.
Sometimes when Mike shows up at a service – having been contacted by a funeral director or a veterans' group – he's greeted with skepticism because of his age. About a year ago, he went to perform at a funeral in Hopkinton. A color guard was there, too, and Mike sensed resistance to his presence. "You could see it in their eyes," he says. But then he played a trial tune for them and all was well.
Mike's father is amazed that no matter what the circumstances, his son never seems to have stage fright. In that way, he's different from his two sisters and his brother, and, for that matter, from the older McCann himself: "Standing in front of an audience doesn't faze him at all."
Mike does seem to take things in stride. Sure, he likes the bugle and the trumpet a lot, but he also runs track, hangs with friends, and keeps his eye on a girl or two. Apart from taps, he loves both classical music and jazz: The mouthpiece of his trumpet is signed by renowned jazz trumpet player Chris Botti. Mike also likes to garden. His specialty is tomatoes, although he grows snow peas and cucumbers, too.
And just now, you'll have to excuse him. He has to go back to school, to take an algebra test.
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