Contributed by Jack Kopstein

Today, the U.S. military is often used as an example of racial equality and opportunity, but before 1948 segregation was the rule. Even though President Truman ordered formal integration, President Franklin Roosevelt made a step forward six years before that by suggesting that the Navy create black bands to elevate the status of black Navy men.

During the World War II, blacks were recruited into the Navy to serve only as cooks, mess attendants, or stewards. By Executive Order of the President blacks were allowed to serve as yeoman and other ratings in 1942. Starting in 1943, 5,000 musicians were recruited from across the country to officially serve as musicians. They were then sent to the Great Lakes Naval Base, near Chicago, for training to play in big bands. As a result this experiment was called “The Great Lakes Experience of World War II.” Following training, 25-piece bands were formed to tour naval bases across the United States and to raise morale where they played. When the war ended, the musicians went home. Some of them formed bands or joined other bands, and some became renowned jazz artists and arrangers. A couple of the more notable ones were Von Freeman and Clark Terry, the jazz trumpeter who later performed with Duke Ellington and the ”Tonight Show” band. Many of them just went into other lines of work.

In Seattle, we know that one of these bands may have been stationed at Naval Air Station Seattle, now known as Warren G. Magnuson Park. One member of the band (not known if he is shown in the photo) was Alvin Larkins.  Larkins came to Seattle when the Navy stationed him at NAS Seattle in 1943. After a long career of teaching music, Alvin Larkins Park was named after him in the 1970’s. Other known members of the band include, drummer Duke Moore (arriving in Seattle in 1942). Moore and other black musicians were best known for the jazz group, “The Question Marks.” Another member was vocalist Babe Williams, known for his renditions of tunes by the Ink Spots and Mills Brothers.

On February 28, 2003, tribute was paid to the Navy’s first “official” black musicians through several events in Chicago.

Jive Bombers jazz band of World War II: In January 1943, the U.S. Naval Military Band transferred from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois to Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle. A group of these musicians formed their own jazz ensemble, the “Jive Bombers.” This information and the band roster was prepared by Jacqueline E. A. Lawson and band member John Willis correctly captioned a photo in the collection of the National Archives.

The Naval Military Band, originally formed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, consisted of about 24 members. The Military Band was transferred to Sand Point Naval Air Station in January 1943. They performed weekly at bond rallies in “Victory Square” which was located in downtown Seattle in front of the Olympic Hotel on University Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. They also participated in parades and performed at various Navy functions.

Several members of the band (about 18 of the below-named individuals) formed a jazz group, calling themselves the “Jive Bombers.” They performed locally (out of uniform) at various private functions — such as weddings and fraternity parties — often with jazz groups organized by local musicians such as Al Hickey and Bob Marshall.

Here are the names of the musicians pictured at the top:

First Row
Robert Braxton, clarinet
Andrew E. Wade, III, clarinet
Al Hickey, clarinet
Wm. Funderburg, saxophone
Charles Ethridge, saxophone
John Irons, trumpet
“Doc” Wheeler, trumpet
J. Chavis, trumpet

Second Row
John Willis
“Baby” Greer
“Deany” Clark
Clifton Rice
Robert Young
unidentified
F. Leftrict
Dave Bradford
Alvin Cola

Standing
unidentified
Jarvis
J. Jacquet
Alvin Larkins
Robert Marshall
Edward Middleton
Edwin Middleton

After discharge from the service, some members of the Jive Bombers remained in the area and continued to play professionally for private and public social functions and dances. Additional local musicians who performed with these groups included: Kenny Boas (piano), “Baby” Greer, Ralph Davis (drums), Elmer Gill (piano), Duke Moore (drums), Johnny Moton (piano), Wyatt “Bull” Ruther (base), Leon Vaughn (trumpet), and Gerald Wiggin.

The Jive Bombers also made a recording of the Dixieland tune ROSETTA as seen above Since this recording is marked as “3” there may have been several others in the same series recorded by WESTERN RECORDING STUDIOS (Seattle Washington). The label shows the name THE USS Bunker Hill. It was one of 24 Essex class aircraft carriers commissioned during the war. The ship went into action in the Pacific in 1943 and the Jive Bombers band may have been the ship’s band and made the recording prior to shipping out.

On February 28, 2003, tribute was paid to the Navy’s first “official” black musicians through several events in Chicago.

Sources
Laney, Mary. Time has come to honor Navy’s black musicians in WWII. February 10, 2003 Chicago Sun Times.
Lazarus, Judy R. The Navy’s ‘jazzy’ history. February 2003. Great Lakes Bulletin.
Museum of History and Industry. Duke Moore drummer with The Question Marks. 2002.
Museum of Music. Integrating the Navy with Jazz: The Great Lakes Experience, 1942-1945.
May 19, 2003. Vibrations.
Seattle Parks and Recreation. Alvin Larkins Park. December 31, 2003

A Concert for Brass Band, Voice, and Piano
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

On September 27, 1974, the Music Division of the Library of Congress recreated a typical concert of brass-band and vocal music from mid-nineteenth-century America. Recorded selections from that concert were presented. These recordings were the result of several years of research by Jon Newsom of the Music Division and many more years of experience and study by the late Frederick Fennell, founder and former director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and professor of music at the University of Miami, and Robert E. Sheldon, then of the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Musical Instruments and presently Curator of Musical Instruments in the Music Division, Library of Congress. Because the purpose of these recordings was to demonstrate the style and quality of the popular music of the era, the musicians used instruments appropriate to the period.

Band concerts of the mid-nineteenth century frequently included vocal music, which as a genre was inseparable from the band music of the same era. The performances included a number of songs performed by Merja Sargon, assisted by Bernard Rose, who also plays two piano solos using the Smithsonian Institution’s 1850 Chickering square piano. Although this is a parlor instrument, it is the kind used by Jenny Lind on her American tour of 1850-52. The iron-frame piano, first introduced by Alpheus Babcock in 1825, was manufactured by Jonas Chickering in Boston in 1840 and was widely popular by the 1850s. Miss Sargon and Mr. Rose are joined in one piece by Robert Stallman, who plays a modern adaptation of the Boehm-system, wood, conical-bore flute. It produces a timbre very much like that of the 6- and 8-keyed flute common in the period.

The Programme (Click on a Track to Listen)
1.   Hunters’ Chorus, from The Rose of Erin (Band)
2.    O Summer Night, from Don Pasquale (Band)
3.    Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway (Vocal)
4.    The Herdsman’s Mountain Song (Vocal)
5.    Captain Shepherd’s Quickstep (Band)
6.    Captain Finch’s Quickstep (Band)
7.    Indiana Polka (Band)
8.    Old Memories (Vocal)
9.    The Moonbeam Waltzes (Band)
10.    La Fontaine (Piano)
11.    Upon a Summer’s Day(Vocal)
12.    Slow March: Midnight! (Band)
13.    Scots Wha Hae: Variations (Piano)
14.    General Taylor Storming Monterey (Band)
15.    Lilly Bell Quickstep (Band)
16.    Why, No One to Love? (Vocal)
17.    Free and Easy (Band)

Songs that Won the War
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

It seems hardly possible with all the world strife happening that in 2010 it will be 65 years since the end of World War II. It is even more astonishing that songs we sang and played during the war are still popular and have taken on a complete life of their own. Young people and baby boomers alike have helped to keep the home fires burning, so to speak, with their support of the great “Songs That Won the War.”

In 1941, as the battle machine began to gear up, the popular culture shifted to war-themed entertainment, including song hits like the Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” (recorded by Tommy Tucker and later the Ink Spots), and “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” recorded by Tommy Dorsey, with vocals by Connie Haines. Much of the music heard during the early period of the war was subdued and the days of urbane little ditties gave way to more sophisticated and emotional songs.

Some songs which had been reasonably popular before the war took on real meaning when the young men began to enlist and head off to training camps, and eventually into battle conditions. One such song was the 1938 hit “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Wartime thoroughly changed the hit parade songs and other hit songs. “The White Cliffs of Dover,” “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” “I left my Heart at the Stage Door Canteen” all made their appearance. One of the greatest tunes from the war was the Irving Berlin number “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” which Berlin has been said to have written on a boiling hot day in 1942 in Los Angeles.

Irving Berlin’s revue with an all-star cast, This is the Army opened on Broadway in July 1942 and it toured the country and. Berlin  himself stopped the show every night with his rendition of O How I hate to Get up in the Morning, in which he depicts soldiers wanting to kill the bugler. The show also had a march which has become a classic This is the Army Mr Jones.

Songwriters became quite creative in their attempts to fit wartime sentiments in a 32-bar popular song. Some of the top songs of 1943 included “Do Nothin Till You Hear from Me,” “Have I Stayed Away Too Long,” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”

The year 1943 saw one interesting development on radio. Because of a musicians strike over revenues, for a time all instrumental music was banned from broadcast, leaving the airwaves to the sound of Capella voices. Typical of the time m famous singers recorded new arrangements of standards backed by a small choral group. One of the most beloved singers of the era was Peggy Lee who took a child’s nursery rhyme and turned it into a smash hit called “A Tisket and Tasket.”

Hit songs of 1944 included “Spring Will be a Little Late this Year,” a song which originally appeared in an unsuccessful 1938 musical that experienced a sudden surge of popularity. The tune became Number 1 over ten times on the hit parade and all the great band leaders of the time went into the sound studios to make a recording, with the Frank Sinatra version featuring Tommy Dorsey winning the sweepstakes for most records sold.

With the war’s end in 1945, the best songs came from Broadway. The upbeat songs captured the optimistic and hopeful attitude of the Allied countries. Songs like “Let It Snow,” “June is Busting Out All Over” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” led the charts.

Popular music kept the morale of the people up and the servicemen and women were entertained and able to sustain a life-line to America. It was like no other period in history because the music was broadcast live or by transcription and wherever battles were fought the music was there to shine a light on the dismal scenes of war the men and women were experiencing. The songs and the music helped immeasurably to win the war.

THE BRITISH GRENADIERS MARCH
By Jack Kopstein

The British Grenadiers is a marching song for the grenadier units of the British military, the tune of which dates from the seventeenth century. It is the Regimental Quick March of the Grenadier Guards, the Honourable Artillery Company and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. It is also an authorized march of The Royal Gibraltar Regiment, The Royal Canadian Artillery, The Canadian Grenadier Guards, The Royal Regiment of Canada, The Princess Louise Fusiliers, and The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles.

A song entitled “The New Bath” found in Playford’s dance books from the 1600s is thought to be the origin. However, it is also suggested that it was derived from the Dutch march “De Jonge Prins van Friesland” (”The Young Prince of Friesland”, referring to Prince Johan Willem Friso); the first notes of this tune are similar. The march was introduced to Britain during the reign of the Dutch Stadholder-King William III. Today it is played as the Royal Inspection March in the Dutch army, and as a march to the crown prince.

The first known association of the tune with the regiment is in 1706 as ‘The Grenadier’s March’, and the first version printed with lyrics from around 1750. It was a popular tune throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and remained so until this day. During Operation Market Garden, a few men of the British 1st Airborne Division are said to have played this song using a flute and a few helmets and sticks as drums.

In the UK, it is played at Trooping the Colour. Additionally, the first eight measures are played during the ceremony when the Escort for the Colour marches into position on Horse Guards Parade.

The following text is the most well-known version of the song. The text arguably dates back to the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713), since it refers to the grenadiers throwing grenades (a practice that proved to be too dangerous and was dropped soon after,) and the men wearing “caps and pouches” (i.e. the typical grenadier caps, worn by these elite troops, and probably the small cartridge boxes worn in front, known as a ‘belly box’) and “louped clothes”, then preserved only for the grenadiers.

Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world’s great heroes, there’s none that can compare.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.
Those heroes of antiquity ne’er saw a cannon ball,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.
But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Whene’er we are commanded to storm the palisades,
Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies’ ears.
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
And when the siege is over, we to the town repair.
The townsmen cry, “Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier!
Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears!
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers. Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes.
May they and their commanders live happy all their years.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

There are a number of words in the song which are not in current usage
•    Fusees – The Grenadier officers carried fusees – fusils, or muskets rather than bombs.
•    Glacis – A term in the science of fortification, referring to the smooth sloping embankment that usually preceded the pit in front of the walls of a fort. Designed to deflect cannonballs, but also a dangerously exposed place to stand throwing grenades.
•    Bumper – A bumper was any container that could be used to clink with another reveller’s bumper in a toast to someone’s health. It could be filled with beer or some other alcoholic drink. It usually referred to a handled vessel such as a (pewter or ceramic) beer-mug or (leathern) jack, but it could refer to a (horn or pewter) beaker or even to a (treen, pewter or silver) punchbowl that could be picked up and passed around for everyone to quaff.
•    Louped clothes – (pronounced “loup-ed” in order for it to scan) It means ‘looped’, and refers to the lace (those ‘bastion loops’) worn as an elite distinction by the grenadiers during the War of Austrian Succession. Other sources suggest that it refers only to the laced shoulder ‘wings’ worn by Grenadiers.
•    toe row row – Refers to forming up in rows in a straight line, i.e. with toes on the line.
•    The song is also the regimental song to the Fort Henry Guard, a generic military regiment representing a British regiment of 1867 in British North America. The guard are part of the living museum at Fort Henry,  in Kingston Ontario. The march is played on fifes and as such some of the sequential notes are omitted because of the limitation of the instrument.

*Altissimo! Recordings has several international band albums from British regiments. Specifically, When the Guards Are on Parade features the band of the Grenadier guards playing a multitude of music, including “The British Grenadiers” march.

The march is also found on Regimental Marches of the British Army and 100 Greatest Military Band Favourites.

At the time of the American Civil War, music played an important part in military affairs. On a practical level, commands and orders were communicated by drum, or by bugles or trumpets in mounted commands. Bugles and trumpets were also making inroads into dismounted units, where drums were still standard. For marching, company drummers were generally grouped into regimental drum corps, and sometimes fifes, and even a bass drum, were added to complete this “field music”. However, regiments that could manage it organized proper marching bands, generally brass bands of from 16 to 24 players, in addition to their drum corps. These were standard for US regular regiments, and were also authorized for volunteer regiments in 1861.

Wealthier peacetime militia regiments had often hired professional bands, either for the occasion, or even on a long-term contract. Many such bands, some of them of a high musical standard, marched off to war with the early regiments; some only went as far as the railroad station, but others went to the front, and served as stretcher bearers in battle.

Some of these bands could number as many as 50 players, and in an army corps where most Regiments had bands, there might be 40 or such bands of music. In July 1862, Congress abolished regimental bands and only the fifes and drums were left. The bands were sorely missed and brigade bands were authorized in their place, while some regiments raised funds to support more modest regimental bands at their own expense, a practice which worked well in the British Army.

In the Confederate service, no such cuts were made, no doubt because not quite so many regiments had bands in the first place. As a result, a few Confederate bands served right through the war.

A drum corps was led by one or two NCOs entitled “principal musicians,” one of whom was usually termed a “drum major” (or in mounted corps, a “trumpet major”), while “fife majors” were also sometimes appointed.

Where a band existed, one of the principal musicians would take charge and was generally termed the “leader.” While drum majors may have marched at the head of bands, leaders appear to have been musicians; the drum major’s main responsibility was for the drum corps, though separately organized civilian bands attached to militia or volunteer regiments would probably have their own drum majors.

Regulations covered the dress of company musicians, who wore the uniform of their unit,    but with “herring-bone” braiding in facing colour on the coat front. Sometimes a drum major might wear no more than musician’s uniform, with the distinctions of an NCO; no specific chevrons were prescribed, but a version of sergeant’s or sergeant-majors’ chevrons, with an additional star or crossed drumsticks, was customary. For bandsmen, regulations simply required regimental uniform with “such additions in ornaments as (the commanding officer) may judge properly.” In practice, this could vary from quite modest modifications to elaborate uniforms that bore no relation to what, when fronting a band, a drum major would wear.

Thus attired, drum majors could make quite a show; when the raw student recruits of Company “1″ of the Confederate 4th Virginia Infantry encountered a colossal warrior “with a fierce moustache waxed into rat-tails,” arrayed in a uniform that made their eyes clink, they were convinced that they met up with the “commander-in-chief of all the Confederate armies,” but were disgusted to learn that he was merely the drum major of the First Virginia Infantry!

One of the most prestigious militia units of the period was the 7th Regiment, New York State Militia, which in the dark early days of war was one of the first regiments to march to the relief of an anxious President and a beleaguered capital, its journey funded largely by its businessman Colonel, Marshall Lefferts. The Seventh’s brief period of service was up even before the battle of First Bull Run, but its arrival at Washington had boosted the morale of the North, and hundreds of its members later served as officers, and even generals, in the Union armies.

In 1858, the Seventh’s dissatisfaction with its band, under Bandmaster Noll, came to a head during an excursion to Richmond, when the “mutinous conduct” of Noll and his men proved too much; “The fatigues of the journey,” opined the regimental chronicler solemnly, “the heat of the weather, and perhaps the free flow of wine and lager-beer, had demoralized the band …” Thankfully, Noll’s contract was up that November, and the next month band-leader and composer C. S. Grafulla (Washington Grays march, see note 1) was engaged in his stead; 38 musicians were selected for the new band, and a contract made for new uniforms and equipment. Under Grafulla’s leadership, the band went on to establish a national reputation for musical excellence.

The full dress of the Seventh was a shako and grey tailed coat, but the band adopted a more modern style based approximately on US regulation patterns, with a dark blue cloth shako, dark blue frock coat with scarlet trim and “plastron” front, and sky blue trousers. The scarlet facings were, perhaps, a reference to the earlier artillery status of the Regiment. The drum-major’s dress differed in several respects, having gilt epaulettes, and no plastron, but outer rows of buttons, nine in number as for the centre row. The cuff patches bore three small buttons, and the collar carried a brass “7″.

Instead of a bandsmen’s shako, the drum major wore a bearskin hat with a feather plume, gold tassels and a scarlet bag with gold cord trim. His scarlet baldric had brass fittings – apparently an eagle of the type worn on US regulation “Hardee” dress hats, linked with a chain to a shield bearing miniature drumsticks. The remaining trim was gold lace.

The trousers were not the sky blue worn by the other bandsmen, but the grey trousers of the Regiment’s officers, with a double, gold lace stripe set on black. The waist belt plate is that prescribed by the New York militia regulations of 1858 – gilt, rectangular, two inches wide, with a raised bright rim, and bearing a silver wreath of laurel and palm encircling the letters “N.Y” in silver Old English characters. Though sergeants of this regiment carried straight NCOs swords, the drum-major, in common with the other senior sergeants, wore an M 1851 type company officer’s sword, without sword knot, in a scabbard studded to fit in a black.

Drum Majors proved to be an invaluable inspiration to the troops and bandsmen as they strutted in front of the Civil war bands and the custom remains to this day with the hundreds of military, civilian and School bands across North America. Federal bands often led troops in momentous battles and the drum majors played an enormous part in the performance of the duties of bands.

Main Sources : FP Todd Military Equipage 1851, Francis A Lord “Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil war”, Regulations for Uniform Dress of the United States Marine Corps 1859, January 1987 issue of  MILIITARY MODELLING©

1.    WASHINGTON GRAYS is performed on 5 ALTISSIMO recordings
The Bicentennial Collection
Forward march
Front and Center
The Great March
An American Patrol
Go to www. militarymusic.com for information

A CIVIL WAR RETROSPECT FROM ALTISSIMO

11th Gettysburg  Music Muster Sounds of the Civil War at National Military Park

27 August 2005

Performances by authentic Civil War musicians  filled  the air on Saturday, August 27, 2005 , at Gettysburg National Military Park during the ELEVENTH  annual Gettysburg Music Muster.  The concerts were one-of-a -kind performances, played mostly on original instruments, and featured  songs of the Irish Union soldiers, balladeers, Victorian dance music and dance performances, along with fife and drum, and more Music Muster performances began  at the park’s Cyclorama Center outdoor stage with  performances  by The  Federal l City Brass.

Returning for the third year were  *Jan Villenueva and *Mark Elrod who founded and the Federal City Brass in2002. The sound and appearance of a traditional 1860’s regimental band are recreated with music of the civil war

The band plays primarily transcriptions and arrangements in quintet format, closely based on original scores from band journals, published music collections and sheet music of the period.

The band, based in Baltimore, is comprised of professional and volunteer musicians, music educators, historians and re-enactors. The Federal City Brass is one of fourteen Civil War bands from across the country   that were selected to participate in the National Civil War Band Festival in2003.

The Susquehanna Travellers are composed of four members playing the guitar, banjo, recorder and violin. They play music of the Civil War, concentrating on Irish and Military Songs.

Music Americana is a-12-pieceorchestra specializing in period music from the mid-19th century. The repertoire of this dedicated group included old favourites as well as many lesser-known but beautiful waltzes, inspiring marches, lively reels and polkas. Instrumentation includes flutes, violins, clarinets cornets, and percussion. All Music Americana members dress in the style of the Civil War. Based in Harford County, Music Americana has performed in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The 77th New York Balladeers took center stage at the Cyclorama, lead by cofounder John C. Quinn. Quinn along with the Balladeers  whom are dedicated to preserving the songs, history and spirit of the 1860s they use the original Civil War music arrangements and lyrics to convey the thoughts, motives, and sorrows of the men and women who lived during one of the most defining periods of our American heritage. The songs are sung as they would have been performed in camp or the family parlour in the 1860s.

Another great Civil re-enactment band is the 5th Michigan Regimental Brass Band from Novi, Michigan, consisting of 28 members. Today’s 5th Michigan Regimental band is a historical recreation of the 1861 Band of the 5th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. The Band’s musical repertoire includes popular marches, polkas, schottisches and waltzes that were played around the 1860s for parades, military balls, and musters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. The band director, Lieutenant Colonel Guy Smith, meticulously transcribed much of the music using material from the National Archives and original sheet music. The music is performed on period antique and replica Saxhorns and wood drums. The band wears copies of the wool uniforms worn by the 5th Michigan soldiers during the Civil War. Traveling with the band is a colour guard and ladies in Civil War period attire.

*Jan Villenueva  is the music historian who researched  and discovered the history of TAPS and has written a book on the subject.
*Mark Elrod is the co-author of Civil war era Musical Instruments and military bands and is a world authority on civil war music and bands.

From the pages and files  of the Frederick News Post 25 August 2005
We hope to list all Civil war re-enactment   groups in our pages shortly . Write a blog  and tell us about your activities.