Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306140038
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DANVILLE, KY. LENGTH: Medium
Eleven groups from across the country performed for the Great American Brass Band Festival, touted as one of the nation's premier events for brass ensembles.
"It has the finest collection of brass bands from around the country all in one spot," said David Friedo, a snare drummer with the Dodworth Saxhorn Band from Ypsilanti, Mich. "You get to see the very best."
The music was played against a backdrop of Victorian homes and historic buildings in Danville, one of Kentucky's earliest settlements, a town of about 14,000 people 35 miles southwest of Lexington.
A historic dance group, high-wheel bicycles, antique cars and a ragtime piano player added to the atmosphere of nostalgia.
The three-day festival celebrates an era that predates phonographs, films and radio - when parlor pianos served as home entertainment systems and weekend concerts in the park were a prime community activity in hundreds of small towns across the country.
At least 30,000 people attended last year and at least that many were expected this year, said George Foreman, a festival organizer. And people from 38 states signed up for the festival's mailing list, he said.
"It's unique," he said. "There's nothing else - as far as we're aware of - that does what this festival does."
Playing host for the noncompetitive event was the Advocate Brass Band, which grew out of a 1987 political rally sponsored by the local newspaper, The Advocate-Messenger.
Other main attractions were the Dodworth Saxhorn Band, which uses odd-looking 1860s-era instruments; Dejan's Olympia Brass Band, a Dixieland band from New Orleans; and the Gold Rush Cornet Band from the San Francisco area, a historic ensemble dedicated to the bands of the California Gold Rush era.
A highlight was a five-member group that played while riding atop an elephant in a recreation of the J.E. Henry Circus band of the early 1900s.
Many of those attending Saturday spread blankets for picnics on the lawn of Centre College. Most scrambled for shelter from an afternoon thunderstorm but weather was not expected to seriously disrupt the event.
Among the visitors was retired business executive Tom Miller of Milwaukee. He explained that he was a trombone player who "just faded away" but whose interest in brass music continues.
"It's a perfect 19th century town," he said, surveying the 1862 Boyle County Courthouse and its green-trimmed gazebo. "You don't have to change anything. Just add the people and the bands."
by CNB