Double the pleasure with big bands

In many parts of the United States, big bands are a lost art. Not here in the Iowa Great Lakes Region. The area is fortunate to have two big bands with big horn sections and very talented rhythm sections. Not only that, they each play every week.

On Monday nights from Memorial Day through Labor Day, the Dick Bauman Big Band performs from 7-9 p.m. in Pomerantz Hall at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji. Bauman was a music educator and Iowa Jazz Educators Hall of Fame inductee who passed away of cancer in 1999; just two years after the Bauman Big Band was formed.

The band is comprised of 18 or so musicians from throughout the area. Some are current music educators, some are retired music teachers and others are accomplished musicians with a day job too. The one thing they have in common is a love for playing music and the chance to improvise when their turns to rising independent musicians. Greg Forney, retired multi-award winning band teacher at Okoboji High School, is the leader of the band as well as a very good drummer. He has put together a dedicated group of players who respect each other’s talents and share the joy of entertaining.

This past Monday night, the Bauman Band was joined by the six members of The Headliners. This is a group of men who come to the area to teach at the Reggie Schive Jazz Camp at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville. They live in such far away places as Scottsdale, Arizona; Kansas City, Missouri; Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska; Vermillion and Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Pomerantz Hall was packed with many of the jazz camp students in attendance along with all of us “old folks” who love to listen and dance to a horn band.

According to Forney, the band will play every Monday with the exception of Independence Day.

They treated the audience to tune after tune of recognizable classics arranged by such notables as Stan Kenton and Randy Newman. The band started the evening off with “It Had To Be You” as well as a lively version of “Cheek to Cheek” and later serenaded us out with “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

The talented musicians could play smooth and soulful or jazzy and upbeat; mixing up the selections to keep the audience on our toes either literally dancing or tapping to the music in their seats.

Tuesday evenings, the Jazzed Up Big Band of Okoboji takes to the stage in the Roof Garden at Arnolds Park. Directed by local businessman and musician Rick Ayres, Jazzed Up was founded nine years ago.

“We have really good musicians who travel long distances to play each Tuesday night,” Ayres said.
They plan to entertain each week through the second or third Tuesday in August.

“Many of our band members are music teachers and they will have to get ready for their classes to begin,” Ayres said.

Normally the band consists of 16 to 17 players. However, things were slightly different for opening night on June 14.

“We have many players who take vacation as soon as school is over, and jazz camp takes them away as well,” Ayres said.

The band began their inaugural evening as a 10-piece band; entertaining the audience appropriately with “This Could Be The Start of Something Big.” They chose to use arrangements specifically created for the smaller 10-piece group. The songs were all recognizable; from Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll” to Count
Basie’s “All of Me.”

Their smooth delivery of “Autumn Leaves” was as soothing as “Boogie Woogie Blues” was lively. “Mac the Knife” gave the trombone section the opportunity to display their talent. “When Your Smiling” had a super dancing beat with a great horn solo by Ken Hoyne from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

In addition to six musicians from Sioux Falls, opening night’s band members came from Sioux City and Spirit Lake.

Next week, the band will be full again, and the location reverts to their normal stage in the Roof Garden Ballroom. Jazzed Up Big Band of Okoboji starts tooting their horns, strumming their strings, caressing those piano keys and beating their drums each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Residents of the Lakes Area, as well as the hundreds of visitors who like the horn band sound, can enjoy it live twice a week. What more could a music lover ask for?