POST HERE: high school band pictures - and talk about them
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 9:33 am
probably 1971 - 1972, 10th grade, ACTUAL band camp (yeah...in the woods...a hundred miles from home...NOT going home to mommy and daddy every night...sleeping on cots in small tents, etc.)
I believe those might all be 36K's, except one might (??) have been a Holton fiberglass. Those were our "concert" instruments...ie. our "instruments".
The person on the left used that 36K (near the end of the following year) to audition into Pershing's Own.
The next person later worked as a sound man/recording engineer. He also played electric bass in the jazz band. I took his place, the following year. I'm the third person. The fourth person got a job fixing woodwinds for a school system. A black-haired trombone (difficult to spot - about "4 o'clock" immediately down from the left sousaphone player), quit music school (after two months as a freshman) and auditioned into the Continental Army Band - later renamed the too-many-words United States Army Training and Doctrine Command Band (as he realized that his own technical/musical skills already exceeded those of his studio teacher, and that he really needed to get on with his life and earn a living). He went on (no engineering nor other degrees) to manage various types of power plants, and had a hand in overseeing the construction of a couple of them.
The band director can be seen at the right edge of the picture; he was a great jazz trombonist (' played a 3B). His son is to his immediate right (right edge), and is a great jazz clarinet/sax player, and also a really good bagpipes and uilleann pipes player. He wasn't in the band (attended a different high school, and probably a college student, by then - in Tom Ferguson's "A" Jazz Band at Memphis State...Tom was the pianist on Rich Matteson's first Tuba Jazz Consort L.P., and a founder of N.A.J.E. - now I.A.J.E.), but always enjoyed coming to the camp and playing in the band, during the camps. His name is Gary, and - when we played rock-and-roll gigs - we gave him the nickname, "Cosmo", and - when we played rhythm-and-blues gigs, his nickname was "Gary Lou" (Louis was NOT his middle name).
Several of the young ladies were really good pop singers, and (though quite young...as discussed in other threads) I gigged with a couple of them a few times (nylon-string guitar gigs, where those who hired me also wanted some vocals). Also, they were 16 or 17 (and I was 15) so I didn't have to bike or bus to those particular gigs, and could ride there with the singer. Typically, we would do Carpenters, Carole King, and Carly Simon stuff.
There were some pretty amazing saxophonists in that band, as well as "baritone horn" players. We were a bit weak (though always one or two really good ones) on trumpets, and tended to only have about three really competent clarinetists (which were strategically placed as principal 1st, principal 2nd, and principal 3rd, so that the parts would be covered, and to show the others "how it goes").
Flutes were remarkable to good..."all-state", etc... Percussionists ranged from "Forrest Gump" to "amazing". One of them went on to play keyboards with the Deltones. He has an autographed Buddy Rich busted snare drum head (which Rich busted at his big band's concert in our high school auditorium one night). The Navy Band (with a 27-year-old Brian Bowman playing a solo on his satin-silver Besson) also played a night concert in our school's auditorium, that year (my senior year).
The neighborhood/district consisted - nearly entirely - of very modest homes (at best: 2 BR/1 BA houses, 1-car carport-or-nothing, possibly with a den or another BR added on to a few of them), but there were quite a few people (though none with the dough to matriculate at northern conservatories) who went on to be full-time or part-time paid musicians, and many others who continued to play as amateurs.
I believe those might all be 36K's, except one might (??) have been a Holton fiberglass. Those were our "concert" instruments...ie. our "instruments".
The person on the left used that 36K (near the end of the following year) to audition into Pershing's Own.
The next person later worked as a sound man/recording engineer. He also played electric bass in the jazz band. I took his place, the following year. I'm the third person. The fourth person got a job fixing woodwinds for a school system. A black-haired trombone (difficult to spot - about "4 o'clock" immediately down from the left sousaphone player), quit music school (after two months as a freshman) and auditioned into the Continental Army Band - later renamed the too-many-words United States Army Training and Doctrine Command Band (as he realized that his own technical/musical skills already exceeded those of his studio teacher, and that he really needed to get on with his life and earn a living). He went on (no engineering nor other degrees) to manage various types of power plants, and had a hand in overseeing the construction of a couple of them.
The band director can be seen at the right edge of the picture; he was a great jazz trombonist (' played a 3B). His son is to his immediate right (right edge), and is a great jazz clarinet/sax player, and also a really good bagpipes and uilleann pipes player. He wasn't in the band (attended a different high school, and probably a college student, by then - in Tom Ferguson's "A" Jazz Band at Memphis State...Tom was the pianist on Rich Matteson's first Tuba Jazz Consort L.P., and a founder of N.A.J.E. - now I.A.J.E.), but always enjoyed coming to the camp and playing in the band, during the camps. His name is Gary, and - when we played rock-and-roll gigs - we gave him the nickname, "Cosmo", and - when we played rhythm-and-blues gigs, his nickname was "Gary Lou" (Louis was NOT his middle name).
Several of the young ladies were really good pop singers, and (though quite young...as discussed in other threads) I gigged with a couple of them a few times (nylon-string guitar gigs, where those who hired me also wanted some vocals). Also, they were 16 or 17 (and I was 15) so I didn't have to bike or bus to those particular gigs, and could ride there with the singer. Typically, we would do Carpenters, Carole King, and Carly Simon stuff.
There were some pretty amazing saxophonists in that band, as well as "baritone horn" players. We were a bit weak (though always one or two really good ones) on trumpets, and tended to only have about three really competent clarinetists (which were strategically placed as principal 1st, principal 2nd, and principal 3rd, so that the parts would be covered, and to show the others "how it goes").
Flutes were remarkable to good..."all-state", etc... Percussionists ranged from "Forrest Gump" to "amazing". One of them went on to play keyboards with the Deltones. He has an autographed Buddy Rich busted snare drum head (which Rich busted at his big band's concert in our high school auditorium one night). The Navy Band (with a 27-year-old Brian Bowman playing a solo on his satin-silver Besson) also played a night concert in our school's auditorium, that year (my senior year).
The neighborhood/district consisted - nearly entirely - of very modest homes (at best: 2 BR/1 BA houses, 1-car carport-or-nothing, possibly with a den or another BR added on to a few of them), but there were quite a few people (though none with the dough to matriculate at northern conservatories) who went on to be full-time or part-time paid musicians, and many others who continued to play as amateurs.
To my right (your left!) are Amy Mendoza (who was a freshman at the time and a good friend of my sister's) and Lora King (who was one year behind me and the only other tubist I payed with who stuck it out all 4 years.) And just past them is a blond girl named Rachael Behnken. Rachael lives in Indiana now and plays in the Old Crown Brass Band with Sam Gnagey. The back row is mostly percussion and the young man in the center, Chris Potts, now owns a music store in our home town called Warehouse 66 Music. 3rd from the end of the 1st row is Jeff Faucett. Jeff could play. He made it to All State band more than once and I'm pretty sure he went off to some prestigious east coast school to major in music performance. The last I heard of him, he was playing cruise ships, but that was pre-pandemic and I've lost track of him since.
) at the same high chool, also in the tenth grade (two uniforms earlier / one band director earlier).
