Fantastic 4th
‘American Idol” pop star Clay Aiken remembers going to the state fairgrounds in Raleigh, N.C., on the Fourth of July when he was young.
It was a family event for the Charlotte native, “and we’d drive down to see the fireworks,” he says. “One year I actually sang with the official choir for that event.”
But there also were times when the Aiken family would celebrate Independence Day by staying home to watch “A Capitol Fourth,” PBS’ long-running broadcast of America’s birthday party in Washington, D.C.
“I always remember it as being America’s most official celebration, so classy and so prestigious,” said Aiken, 25. “So it’s really kinda cool to be able to be a part of that, to get to sing at the Capitol.”
Aiken’s rendering of “The Star-Spangled Banner” will kick off this year’s “A Capitol Fourth,” airing tonight from the West Lawn of the Capitol.
Hosted for the seventh time in the past eight years by actor Barry Bostwick, the concert will also feature performances by Aiken; married Nashville stars Vince Gill and Amy Grant; and Robin Gibb in a tribute to the Bee Gees and the disco era.
Erich Kunzel, America’s premier pops conductor, will lead the National Symphony Orchestra in a salute to the movies.
As always, the concert will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” — with cannons firing from the Reflecting Pool — and a medley of John Philip Sousa marches sparking the huge fireworks display from the Washington Monument grounds.
This year, however, Sousa’s music also will be heard at the start of the concert program as part of a 150th birthday salute to the famed composer and conductor whose “Stars and Stripes Forever” has become synonymous with Independence Day.
“If ‘The Blue Danube’ is the waltz of waltzes, then ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ is the march of marches,” Kunzel says. “And just like Johann Strauss is the Waltz King, unquestionably Sousa is the March King. He just had that form down pat.”
The program features some of Sousa’s most famous marches, including “Semper Fidelis” (the official anthem of the U.S. Marine Corps) and “The Washington Post March.”
While “A Capitol Fourth” has offered centennial celebrations of such major American composers as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, this year it will pay tribute to a legendary performer, Ray Charles.
Charles, who died on June 10, performed as part of the millennium “Capitol Fourth,” including “America the Beautiful,” perhaps the unofficial national anthem thanks to his transformative reading.
“We have this fabulous footage of Ray doing ‘America the Beautiful’ (in 2000),” says executive producer Jerry Colbert. “The fireworks came on at the perfect time, and up on the big screen Ray is playing his piano and the fireworks are totally surrounding him.”
The tribute will include gospel star Yolanda Adams performing the Charles classic “Georgia on My Mind.”
There will not be a tribute to President Reagan. “Because we’re at the nation’s capital, we have always kept it nonpolitical, with no congressmen or presidents participating in the program,” Colbert says. “It’s a fun, celebratory holiday.”
It’s become something of a poignant one for Aiken. His stepfather, Ray Parker, a veteran, died two years ago on July 4. His younger brother, 18-year-old Brett, just enlisted in the Marines.
“This Fourth of July is special because my dad was in the Air Force and my brother is now in the military,” Aiken says. “It gives a little more meaning to it this year.”
Along with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” he plans to sing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and an orchestra-backed version of the title song from his own album “Measure of a Man.”
Aiken, whose spirited competition with eventual winner Ruben Studdard on “Idol” last year was watched weekly by as many as 30 million people, said he didn’t realize he’d be performing in front of a live audience that could number 500,000 — not to mention the millions of viewers who usually tune in to watch PBS’ highest-rated entertainment program.
“I didn’t know there were that many people. I’m going to have to call and cancel now!” he joked, before adding: “It’s exciting. I’ve said that everything I do seems to get bigger and better, and every opportunity I have had in the past year has topped the previous one.”
Host Bostwick conceded that “doing a live 90-minute show in front of so many people, the stress level is pretty high. So you focus on the job at hand, which was parallel, I guess, to our Founding Fathers, who focused on the job at hand. …
“Of course, if they failed, it was death at the end of a rope. I would just die on stage.”
Bostwick’s first encounter with “A Capitol Fourth” came in 1983, when he was in Alexandria, Va., filming the acclaimed CBS miniseries “George Washington.”
“We had an off day and I came to the concert with Patty Duke and we laid a blanket down and watched it,” he said. “Being a witness to a huge event like that gave me such a rush of patriotism and pride that it carried through the whole ‘George Washington’ experience. It was inspirational, something I couldn’t even articulate beyond pride in your country and the people who created this freedom that we are able to bask in.”
Bostwick, who recalls tears and goose bumps the first time he was on stage for the fireworks finale, has made “A Capitol Fourth” something of a family affair.
“I’ve got a 9-year-old (Brian) and a 7-year-old (Chelsea), and in the last six years I’ve tried to get one of them on stage at the end of the show, sometimes during the show,” he said. “So I have this incredible record of my children growing up in front of the Capitol and singing ‘God Bless America’ and waving flags.”