BAND STORIES THAT WILL MAKE EVERYONE WANT TO JOIN A BAND

Be in the front row of the Crystal Place in London, England for the big Brass Band Festival when a Canadian boy’s band beats 35 of England’s finest adult bands. Hear the Si Zentnor Band in LA when a young Canadian trumpet player is breaking in his chops before heading to Vegas to play with Louis Bellson. From Vegas he travels to Europe before returning to Toronto where he joins Rob McConnell and his Boss Brass and remains as lead trumpet for 30 years. March down the Promenade des Angles in Nice, France in a parade with a Canadian band on tour in Europe. When the parade is over they are awarded first place and they didn’t even know it was a contest they are so good, all in the life of a touring band. Join the boys as they tour across Canada by train getting out at every whistle stop to play junk music concerts before heading on to Quebec and the ocean liner that will take them on a four month tour of England. Be in Great Yarmouth with a band when war is declared and they are told to get out of England fast. Under the cover of searchlights and balloons follow their bus to Southampton where they board the Empress of Britain for the trip back to Canada watching for U-Boats along the way. Go into a music store in London with a young Canadian bandsman on tour. When the owner discovers he is from Canada and in a band he takes him into a backroom and introduces him to legendary saxophone player Charlie Parker. Be in the Winter Gardens listening to Bobby Pratt play screamers all night and then go into a dressing room and meet members of the Ted Heath Orchestra the hottest band in England. Go with a young Canadian bandsman on tour in England up to the front door of the best trombone player in England and ask him to give him a lesson. This same boy is later tracked down by talent scouts from the Berlin Philharmonic and after he becomes the first instrumental music graduate from the University of BC Music department he spends a year playing with the Berlin Philharmonic. Watch as a young Canadian trumpet player is invited to play with the Ivor-Kirchen band in a club in London. After they ask him if he wants to join the band and he replies, “I can’t, I am still in school. I have to go back to Canada and finish grade 10.” Sit in the front row with Charles and Di at Expo 86 in Vancouver and watch the bands parade by. Stand alongside that same band in London as they are introduced to the Queen and Prince Phillip at the Royal Tournament. Travel to South Africa as the same band tours the country and then later does the same thing in Melbourne playing one festival after the other around the world. Join the boys in a Canadian band at the Chicago World’s Fair as they listen to all the big bands playing the clubs after hours including a young Sammy Davis Jr. Join two young Canadian bandsman on the loose in LA where they meet Jimmy Durante and get into all sorts of mischief. Travel by ship over to Ireland from England with the boys on the roughest waters in the world. When they arrive in Dublin to play the Royal Horse Show they see a movie being advertised called Dead on Arrival and thought it was for them. Join the boys in the band for mail call in England where they receive letters from girls they have met with SMACK written on them WWII code for I love you. Join a young Canadian bandsman laid up in a hospital in Germany with mononucleosis. His doctor is a musician and sneaks him down to the Rhine at night to hear the Kenny Clarke Francy Boland Big Band. March around the field at the Kerkrade Music Festival when a Canadian band of boys wins double gold in the harmony and marching contests a feat unheard of in European circles. Be there when a Dutch town goes all out to honor a Canadian band after the war because the Canadians liberated their town and they didn’t get the chance to thank them back then. Be at the Canadian jazz Band Festival in Vancouver during Expo 86 when a Canadian high school band makes history.

The stuff of legends…….