The White Salmon Jazz Band held a Reunion Concert last Saturday in Bingen’s Daubenspeck Park to practice before Huckleberry Festival and meet up with past Jazz Band members. The smoke didn’t deter players as they rolled through their set list without missing a beat.
The White Salmon Jazz Band held a Reunion Concert last Saturday in Bingen’s Daubenspeck Park to practice before Huckleberry Festival and meet up with past Jazz Band members. The smoke didn’t deter players as they rolled through their set list without missing a beat.
Members of the White Salmon Jazz Band (WSJB) met in spite of a smoky Saturday, Aug. 22, in Bingen for a reunion concert that doubled as practice before performing at the Huckleberry Festival that will take place Sept. 11 through Sept. 13.
“We’ve been meeting fairly steadily since ’79. There’s still a few original members, one of them is at a fire right now so he couldn’t make it,” trombone player Alan Patrick explained, a member and organizer of the WSJB Reunion concert that took place Saturday. He and his wife, Karen Patrick, who plays the bari sax, or baritone saxophone, pulled the event together for the band.
The WSJB was formed in 1979 by a core group of Columbia high school students and alumni who banded together to continue playing music outside of school.
“We started out originally only doing the Huckleberry Fest, we would just get together, you know, a month before, rehearse, and then do Huck Fest,” said Patrick.
Past and present members of the Jazz band came out from as far as California to participate in the reunion concert that took place last weekend in Bingen’s Daubenspeck Park.
“Now we’re almost year round, we usually take the holidays off, and have a gig a month or two a month,” explained Patrick. The WSJB meets every Wednesday in White Salmon and Bingen. During school the band meets in the high school band room in White Salmon, while summer meetings are reserved for the Lutheran Church basement in Bingen.
The age of band members ranges from 88 to 16 years old; the youngest member will be a high school sophomore this year, Patrick said.
“Through the years we’ve always had a few high school kids pop-in and play with us,” Patrick explained when talking about the band’s membership.
Twenty-one individuals played for the White Salmon Jazz Reunion event Saturday, both a mix of current band members and past alumni played together to create a full ensemble. “We have everything, we have saxes, and trombones, and trumpets, and rhythm... So keyboard, drums, base, [and] guitar,” said Patrick.
The concert drew a steady crowd of listeners who filled lawn chairs and donned blankets in front of the park’s amphitheater for the occasion. A “White Salmon Jazz” banner and framed Jazz Band memorabilia, pictures and newspaper clippings, were displayed in front of the band as they played for viewers, who could then glimpse a part of the band’s history in between sets.
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