Fort Bragg-Advocate News/Staff
On Monday morning, Cotton Auditorium”s band and drama room had the atmosphere of a football locker room after a homecoming victory. Music and voices erupted from everywhere in the room, which is hidden behind the massive stage. Kids chatted to each other and even this reporter about Friday night”s concert.
“They know they did very well on Friday. It is like a big win,” said Eldon Wolfe, director of the five bands in Fort Bragg schools. All five bands performed in concert for the community last Friday. The June 1 event could be the grand finale for Wolfe who has been laid off by the school district. In a second loss for Fort Bragg school music, John Gilmore, music teacher at Dana Gray Elementary, is retiring; his position will not be filled.
The school district still hopes that constantly shifting state budget funding can result in money that will allow them to save the band director position and cancel the layoff. The band director position cut would save the district $50,000. If unable to have a band director next year, trustees promise only two of the bands will be cut, along with at least one choir. Jennifer Windsor, who now directs the choirs in the district, would also take over the bands in what FBUSD President Jennifer Owen calls “the worst case scenario.”
There was no verbal expression of politics at Friday”s all bands concert. Yet, over three hours, a music story of learning, mistakes and blazing triumph developed. The early moments of the concert provided some less than harmonious moments, along with some individual brilliance. The now, possibly doomed, Fifth Grade Band played what the program described as a “Mozart Melody,” but the tune was hard to identify. The sixth grade band found communal as well as flat notes, playing a clear and recognizable “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven.
Next, the Middle School Concert Band truly cruised in “The Tijuana Taxi” after a slow start they showed range and promising synchronicity.
“You could actually hear and experience the learning process in how each band got better and better as the night went on,” said Steve Spaans, a band parent who was in the audience.
“I have never seen a fifth grade group that large. They have a lot to learn but they are doing it. We have to find a way to prevent these cutbacks,” said Spaans. He points to the long tradition of community support of band in Fort Bragg, back to the early 20th century days of “Professor” Joel Cotton.
“The community may have to step up again like they did back then,” said Spaans.
The High School Concert Band provided a crisp selection of tunes, followed by the truly soothing and practiced bubbling and popping sounds of jazz provided by the Timberwolf Jazz Pack.
The steadily improving music created an effect that was obvious, evocative and intentional, Wolfe confessed.
“It does show how much the students learn each year and how quickly they improve,” said Wolfe. Virtually all the younger students in the audience watched intently when their older counterparts played. When mistakes were made, director Wolfe and the younger bands simply looped back for another try during the tune.
A half dozen talkie Middle School Band musicians interviewed in the band had one message they agreed on they would never have been able to play well if they hadn”t played badly to start in the fifth grade.
While the rest of the Middle School Band dressed in blue uniforms Friday night, Bryce Estes wore the tux of the high school band, which he also plays with. Estes is clearly very serious about music, also playing with Symphony of the Redwoods.
He credits his learning with getting an early start in Fifth Grade Band.
“Cutting the Fifth Grade Band out would have a big impact on the quality of all the other bands as the years go on,” said Estes.
“It”s important to get started as early as possible.”
About 500 community members signed a petition to keep the band director position and a half-dozen spoke to the school board at its May meeting.
Board President Owen started the May school board meeting by correcting a letter that she said wrongly stated that cutting the band director position meant the end of band in Fort Bragg schools. She promised the two middle school and the High School Concert Band would be retained.
“Jennifer, I know you think this is not the start of losing the band. But I”ve talked to many parents in Mendocino who say this same cut was the step that led to the loss of their program,” said Mike Del Campo, who has been involved in both Mendocino and Fort Bragg schools.
“Our experience with Mendocino schools shows that cutting the band director is the death knell of a band program,” said Robert Van Buren, a member of the band boosters in Fort Bragg, quoting a letter from the Mendocino Coast Jazz Society. “We are disappointed with this draconian move that was made without consulting with community members who might help.”
Doug Moody, of North Coast Brewing Company, has agreed to spearhead an effort to save the band, trustees were told. Interviewed later, Moody said North Coast Brewing has made major investments in the local arts and is willing to lead that effort if asked.
Wolfe and Band Boosters President Ray West spent nearly an hour giving special awards to most improved and talented members of each band, along with special recognitions for those who had set up chairs or provided tutoring. Thinking he was done, Wolfe picked up his director”s wand.
Kids then gestured and pointed from behind for Wolfe to give credit for the one gray-haired musician in the band, Mel McKinney. Trumpeter McKinney, owner of Little River Inn, has joined the band several times, credited by the students with helping with timing and finding tunes.
McKinney”s own musical school experiences transformed his mind and life. He has been getting joy and power from music since the fourth grade.
“Music never stops keeping you young,” he piped up over an after concert oral cacophony coming from a real mixing of grade school through high school youth.
“There are some things from grade school they will forget, but not music. These kids will carry this with them for the rest of their lives. It”s so important we don”t lose this experience, like happened in Mendocino,” lamented McKinney.
Wolfe, 78, took his first teaching job in 1964, starting a choir and marching band in an Oregon Native American community, whose marching band became a hit around the region. He has seen other band programs die slow deaths when cut to one teacher. He was working in Paradise when the Fort Bragg position opened. Wolfe had family in Fort Bragg he came to be with, but he isn”t ready to retire just yet, if his position can be restored.
Wolfe says the band experience teaches far more than music. The bands include a true mixture of the races and genders, along with a disabled young man who plays a key role. Another disabled musician in a wheelchair wasn”t able to make the concert, Wolfe said.
“Middle School is such an important time for students to learn to get along with others and to understand differences. Playing music together really helps with that.”
Miguel Perez, a trumpeter in the Middle School Concert Band, is proud to be the first in his family to play a musical instrument. He played with drums as a little kid and was hooked on music.
“It”s really fun. I learn more and more stuff every year.”
His favorite group?
“I”m not really into listening to music. When I hear music I just want to play music,” Perez said.
Perez has played drums in church and plans to stick with music, a talent he said still surprises and even perplexes his family.
Wolfe said math is another area where band experience makes a big difference.
“Music works the brain not just from a musical standpoint but also mathematically. They were playing some complex rhythms out there tonight, some in 9-8 time, 12-8 time. Wolfe said it takes years of practice and timing to learn the rhythms of “Send in the Clowns” like the TimberWolf Jazz Pack played at the concert.
“We traditionally teach reading, writing and arithmetic. What we are learning is that the R”s is just one of four ways we learn and we are just now beginning to understand the learning process. Music and art help in these other areas of learning,” said Dr. Wade Gray, a band booster.
“We have to ask ourselves as members of an enlightened society how we can not be fostering this form of learning from kindergarten on,” West told the school board.
The school bands play a big role in the community not just at sporting events but parades from Paul Bunyan Days to Veterans Day.
Bob Canclini, of the American Legion, remembered helping form the now defunct Mendocino High Band in 1946 after World War II. He said the band experience was tremendous for students and the community.
“We enjoy having the Fort Bragg High School Band there to perform for the veterans. It”s very important we have their music on Veterans Day and other times,” Canclini said.
“Find it in your hearts to keep the band director,” Canclini told the school board.
Retiring Gilmore”s message to the community was that something is being lost and that music can make a big difference in the lives of kids
“If somebody had not given Louie Armstrong a trumpet in an orphanage, world history would have been different,” Gilmore said.
