Nights with the Band

One of the pleasures of the community where I live is having the ability to simply stroll down the street for a superb free of charge evening of wonderful music by our Municipal Band. This band has been in existence for 101 years, the longest on-going Municipal Band in the united states. The music director and conductor Larry has been doing his thing for the band for approximately eighteen years now, and I have seen nearly every presentation he has been involved in for the period of those years. So of course it is understandable if I am feeling sad right now to learn that our city just cannot afford to continue with the band and this year is the final performance for our yearly Summer Music Concert Series.

In our town we have all kinds of free music, free movies on the beach and a great deal of little free rock concerts that happen all summer. But none of these compare with the attendance at the Municipal Band Concerts. They are very famous, with overflow crowds’ at all four good sized city parks where they hold them. In fact, it is so congested that I have been doing what many in our town do on concert day. I have been venturing out to the park initial thing in the early morning to stake out my spot on the lawn with a blanket and chair to mark my spot until I return in the evening. I guess it says something good about our town that fifty people can leave their chairs and blankets seated on a lawn throughout the day and they are all still there when we get back to the park at 6Pm that night to be seated and enjoy the concert.

By the time the concert begins each week, there are commonly around 200 people sitting at the lawn, almost all with picnic baskets of wonderful goodies and the very illegal wine to drink. I do find it funny that they invariably announce at the outset of each show that it is illegal to consume alcohol on park premises while everyone inside earshot of the announcement is uncorking their wine bottles and pouring them into wine glasses to pass around. But no-one has ever gotten rowdy, we are a quite calm bunch who sit and munch our cold chicken, drink our wine and listen to Star and Stripes Forever. The craziest anyone gets is when just about every Fourth of July show the band asks members of the assorted armed forces to stand when the band plays the theme for their specific branch of the military. Some get very teary-eyed and many sing along pretty loudly, even if they are tone deaf. But if is very small-town and fairly sweet to see.

My girlfriend and I have been going to these concerts jointly for about five years now, since that time we met and became aware we both treasured these concerts. She doesn’t always get out of work in time to be there at the start, so I will put the food together in the afternoon while I am writing and bring it to the park as she is closing up her store and heading out our way. We meet in the park, with her little dog Susie firmly in check, and smile at the joy this performance gives to our lives.

So I am sorry to think that with next week’s performance this amazing ritual of summer in our town will be ending. The town declared last year that they would be reducing because of restricted money and when the bucket went around for contributions everyone ponied up big time. We raised twice the amount we generally do, but it still wasn’t sufficient. High schools did car washes and little old ladies held rummage sales, but it nevertheless wasn’t enough. They discussed it for three months at town hall gatherings, but the musicians are all top performing artists, most of them are session artists in Hollywood studios when they aren’t at the Municipal Concert performances. Though they wanted to come down in their fees, they are all union and can’t bring it down any further than they have. So this is the end of an era. And we will be all the poorer to be without it.

When Deni isn’t lamenting the loss of her Municipal Band, she is writing blogs about many distinct and enjoyable things. Some of those include a blog about how to use metal bandsaw blades correctly, the best way to build a brick retaining wall for your garden and what the real estate market is like in Monroe County in Southern Florida.