Strike Up the Band!

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade

With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.

They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuo-sos,

the cream of ev’ry famous band.

Meredith Willson captured the essence and excitement of a marching band in the first stanza of the great centerpiece song of The Music Man, Willson’s brilliant musical fairy tale of a con man who meets his match in River City, Iowa.

The marching band of Willson’s tale was grassroots, homegrown, playing for the glory of the music, and, possibly, the uniform that went with it.

The uniform is part of what it means to be a marching band because marching bands began as military units. Uniformed citizen bands came later – let’s set that date circa John Philip Sousa leaving the U.S. Marine Band in 1892 when he formed his own civilian, uniformed marching band that toured the world for the next 40 years, until Sousa’s death in 1932.

You have to wonder what Sousa would make of today’s military bands, such as the Wisconsin National Guard’s 132nd Army Band. The 132nd plays the military marches, of course, but the band also plays jazz and pop and has ensembles that play country, rock and polka music.

“All of our members went to regular boot camp, but our main job is to be musicians and to serve our nation in a musical capacity,” said Rebecca Keaty, who is the events and sponsorship manager for the Chicago Tribune Media Group by day, but is also known as Staff Sgt. Keaty, sax player in the 132nd Army Band.

“When I first got in the band, we had a ceremonial band, the marching band and concert band that everyone played in,” she said. “Now we have a rock band, country band, polka band, jazz band. We don’t have any rappers, but I’m sure at some point we’ll be called on to add that.”

Adding other ensembles reflected both the interests of the communities the band serves and the band members themselves.

“We need to serve soldiers and community members of the future. Not many younger men and women want to hear just John Phillip Sousa marches and classical music,” Keaty said.

“That’s one of the big changes in the military music scene,” said Chief Warrant Officer Brad Anderson, trombonist and commander of the 132nd Army Band. “It used to be marching band and concert band. That was the main gist of what a military band was all about. We’ve added lots of small ensembles, whether it be a woodwind quintet or a brass band, rock band, country band. We still do jazz and jazz combo. The number of ensembles have increased, doubled. The style of music we play, we try to reach all ages, popular music included.”

Of course the marches and military music are played during parades, such as the 4th of July in Baileys Harbor, where the 132nd Army Band can be seen and heard.

“Parades are great because of the sheer volume of people. We can reach thousands of people in one gig,” Keaty said.

The Baileys Harbor parade is just one of 13 performances the 132nd Army Band is doing in northeastern Wisconsin in the next few weeks. It is the band’s first Door County appearance in seven years. The band returns to Door County on July 5 for a concert at Calvary Methodist Church in Egg Harbor, featuring three of the group’s music ensembles: Soldiers of Sax saxophone ensemble, Patriot Jazz Band and the Badger Brass Collective (a brass quintet).

“They’re going to hear some pretty diverse music, different styles, and a lot of excellent musicians,” Anderson said of both the concert and the parade. “Our main ensemble is still the concert band, but even within that they’re going to hear some jazz, they’ll get marches, and they’ll get my favorite, the service song medley. That’s our opportunity to honor any veterans in the audience. That’s always the high point of the concert. We ask them to stand when their service song is played. It’s remarkable how many people in the state have served. It’s great to see that pride when they stand to hear their song.”