Contributed By: Stacy Flankey

Montrose Community Band of Colorado

Montrose, Colorado has a rich history of municipal bands, dating back nearly 100 years.  Herb Probasco organized the Montrose Community Band in 2002 with just 12 members.  Today, the band has over 30-40 members per concert and continues to grow.  The band features a wide range of musicians from High School students to accomplished artists.  The youngest player is 11 years old, and the oldest musician is 82 years young!  There are several veterans in the band, Lyle Miller on tuba; Don Macdonald with the percussion section; alto saxophonist Dave Loncar; Dave Reddish playing trumpet; Jim Gibson on Bari Sax; Steve Nelson on Tenor Sax; Kalynn Carlton, who is a member of the 101^st Army National Guard Band, on French Horn.

Toby King is the Montrose Community Band director.  King started playing the saxophone in 6^th grade at Delta Middle School.  He played through the ranks of the Delta School District and studied Music Education in college.  He received a Bachelor of Music Education and achieved a Masters in Instrumental Conducting.  He currently works as a Certified Financial Planner for Raymond James Financial Services.

The band has a special committee that decides what music will be played for each concert.  There is also a Band Member of the Quarter that is awarded each concert, and that person gets to choose a piece to be played in the following concert as part of the reward.  The band likes to play a variety of music.  The 4^th of July concert is patriotic and filled with marches and an annual salute to veterans.  The Christmas concert has classics and a few new songs to keep everyone excited for the holidays.  The spring and fall concerts vary and usually have a theme-based lineup.  The committee tries to honor the soldiers and veterans throughout the year and remember important dates surrounding them and the battles fought by picking pieces based on or dedicated to these events.  The next concert will be on April 15^th, at 3 pm and included swing music and other songs from the big band era titled “Spring Swing.”

Along with the four main concerts each year, the band will participate in the Telluride’s 4^th of July parade, and at Deltarado Days Fair and Rodeo in Delta, CO.  The band has also traveled to Ouray and Lake City to play with the Lake City Stingers.  Montrose Community Band also performs for nursing homes and assisted living centers, and in the Christmas parade.  Some members of the band also went “caroling” at businesses around the holidays.  The Saxophone Ensemble performs after intermission at regular concerts, and is often called on for special events.  The band offers younger musicians the chance to earn some community service credits while gaining more experience playing with the Montrose Community Band.

This year marks the 10-year anniversary for the band.  The first concert was played in December 2002 for Christmas.  Founder Herb Probasco passed away last fall, and is greatly missed by the band members and community.  Tina Woodrum added, “We are a group that really loves playing their instruments and we welcome all ages and skill levels.”  All concerts are free and open to the public.

Thank you, Tina Woodrum for taking the time to gather the information for us!

You can view the band’s YouTube video here.

View the Montrose Community Band Website

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

James Reese Europe was a well-known international jazz band musician and band leader.  He joined the army during World War II and obtained a Commission in the New York Army National Guard, where he saw combat as a lieutenant with the 369th Infantry Regiment (the “Harlem Hellfighters”).  He went on to direct the regimental band to great acclaim.  In February and March of 1918, James Reese Europe and his military band travelled over 2,000 miles in France, performing for British, French, and American military audiences, as well as French civilians.  Europe’s “Hellfighters” made their first recordings in France for the Pathé brothers.  The first concert included a French march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” as well as syncopated numbers such as “The Memphis Blues,” which, according to a later description of the concert by a band member, “…started ragtimitis in France.”

After his return home in February 1919 he stated, “I have come from France more firmly convinced than ever that Negros should write Negro music.  We have our own racial feeling and if we try to copy whites we will make bad copies…We won France by playing music which was ours and not a pale imitation of others, and if we are to develop in America, we must develop along our own lines.”  In 1919, James Reese Europe made more recordings for Pathé Records, including both instrumentals and accompaniments with vocalist Noble Sissle.  Noble Sissle with Eubie Blake, would later have great success with their 1921 production of Shuffle Along, which gives us the classic song “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”  Differing in style from Europe’s recordings of a few years earlier, they incorporate blues, blue notes, and early jazz influences including a rather stiff cover record of the Original Dixieland Jass(sic) Band’s “Clarinet Marmalade.”

On the night of May 9, 1919 Europe performed for the last time.  He had been feeling extremely ill all day, but wanted to continue on with the concert, which was to be the first of three in Boston’s Mechanics Hall.  During the intermission Europe went to have a talk with two of his drummers, Steve and Herbert Wright.  After criticizing some of their behavior, which included walking off stage during others’ performances, Herbert became very agitated and threw his drumsticks down in a seemingly unwarranted outburst of anger.  He claimed Europe didn’t treat him well and that he was tired of getting blamed for others’ mistakes.  He lunged for Europe with a pen knife and was able to successfully stab Europe in the neck.  Europe told his band to finish the set and he would see them the next morning. It would be the last time they saw him alive.

News of Europe’s death spread fast to a stunned public.  W.C. Handy wrote, “The man who had just come through the baptism of war’s fire and steel without a mark had been stabbed by one of his own musicians…The sun was in the sky.  The new day promised peace.  But all the suns had gone down for Jim Europe, and Harlem didn’t seem the same.”  Europe was granted the first ever public funeral for an African American in the city of New York.  Tanney Johnson said of his death, “Before Jim Europe came to New York, the colored man knew nothing but Negro dances and porter’s work.  All that has been changed. Jim Europe was the living open sesame to the colored porters of this city.  He took them from their porter’s places and raised them to positions of importance as real musicians.  I think the suffering public ought to know that in Jim Europe, the race has lost a leader, a benefactor, and a true friend.”

At the time of his death he was the best-known African American bandleader in the United States.  He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Watch the YouTube video to learn more about James Reese Europe and the Famous “Hellfighters” Band

Adapted from Wikipedia