The JHCB is 25 years old this spring! Over the last 25 years we have had a very diverse set of musicians, and we are all volunteers playing because we love music. We asked our musicians to tell us a favorite memory and this is what they had to say.
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Jerry Tapp
When the JHCB first started up we had a brass Quintet, members were Don Cushman and Jim Stockhouse on trumpet, Jeff Woodruff on Trombone, Tom Ninnemann on Tuba, and myself on French Horn. When Felix Buckingroth was President he paid them to play Christmas Music at the bank. This lasted 4 or 5 years, until Felix retired from the bank. |
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Don Cushman
1. Watching or listening to the members humming or whistling our last rehearsed number as they leave the rehearsals. 2. The first time we played for the Wyoming Winter Special Olympics Opening Ceremony, the first person through the door was in a wheel chair. There was a collective lump in the throat of the players in the band, and there was an instant resolve to participate in the ceremony whenever we could in the future. 3. During our most patriotic time of celebrations — on or near July 4 — it’s a thrill to play “America, the Beautiful” at the Jackson Lake Lodge with one of America’s most beautiful scenes in the background. |
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Nancy Ninnemann
Our first performance was the Old West Days Parade. Of course we didn’t have our parade trailer at that time, so we arranged to “borrow” a flat-bed, complete with truck to pull it and driver. He was to meet us by the fair building at 8:30. We arrived there and no trailer. We had chairs and stands (probably borrowed from the school district) ready to put on, but the trailer didn’t show up. We waited. About 15 minutes before the parade was to start, still no trailer. Word spread that the band was stranded. John Turner from Triangle X said he had brought a wagon (for the parade) on a flat-bed which was now empty and sitting in the fairgrounds parking lot. We were welcome to use it if we could find a driver. Just then Dick Riddle from Lower Valley Electric walked by and said, “I’ll drive.” He pulled the trailer up, we climbed on with the chairs and stands and we were off. For the July 4th parade, and many years thereafter, Lower Valley provided the flat-bed and Dick drove for us. |
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Tom Ninnemann
In 1984, a group of brass players were put together to play for Father’s Day at First Baptist Church. That initial group was made up of Don Cushman, Bob Dunstan, Tom Dunham, Jerry Tapp and Tom Ninnemann. For years thereafter, the group made up of changing members played at various events around the town including parades and the Christmas Square lighting. The “Jackson Hole Brass Quintet” even played at least one church service in Idaho Falls. It was during such events that others in the community spoke of how they wish they too had a venue to play the instruments they had in high school or college, but they did not fit into a brass ensemble. Then prior to the Wyoming Centennial, a call went out for projects to celebrate the state’s birthday. Funding was offered for “lasting legacy” projects. Several musicians from the quintet applied for funds to purchase music and other miscellaneous needs to form a band which would include the woodwind players and others they had met. Part of the inspiration came from a photo found at the Jackson Hole Historical Society of a community band posing near the square around 1914. The group met for the first rehearsal in the old high school on Glenwood Street and about 20 people showed up. 25 years later, some of those original members are still with the band. |
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Dave Raaum
My favorite memory of the band is traveling with our son Christopher to Maastricht, Netherlands for a week of music and sight-seeing. We saw many historical European sites, and the band performed in a parade and a concert. It was a unique experience to rehearse with a local band whose members didn’t speak much English, but could read the same music. They had ashtrays and cup-holders on the music stands, and a bar in the back of the room for drinks after rehearsal. Each JHCB band member was given 2 tokens to use at the bar. |
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Patsy Raaum
My favorite was the concert on the square after the parade, 2001. |
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Holly Balogh
Rocking The Stars and Stripes Forever on the piccolos with Norma at Jackson Lake Lodge summer 2012 (is that year right?)- I think the best she had ever played Playing at the Center for the Arts the first time with our friends from the Music Festival – we sounded awesome Playing in the basement of St. John’s Episcopal Church when I was pregnant – the baby danced the whole time in that room! |
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Julie Wilson
The year we performed “Your a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” for our Christmas program. During rehearsal, Ron Maason who is in the low brass section along the back wall, said that he had never heard that tune before. The entire band turned around and started singing to him “You’re a mean one, Mister Grinch…”
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‘Bringing my students from my Driggs band to community band’
For several years I would bring 2-3 of my best students to Community Band. We really bonded and it was so neat to see them play along side the adults. When I retired from teaching, that was the one thing I missed.