The pandemic had musicians everywhere worried about when they’d next perform, or even play in the same room with others.
But Sarah Jo Ritchie wasn’t worried, at least too much. Ritchie, a coronet player who coordinates the South Holland Municipal Band, looked into the past for reassurance. The group had already survived one pandemic.
Formed as the South Holland Concert Band sometime before 1907, those musicians outlasted the Spanish Flu and played together until at least 1927 or 28, when a photo shows a group of the musicians campaigning for continued municipal support. They took to the street with their instruments urging their neighbors to “vote yes on the band proposition.”
Born in a time when nearly every town had a band of its own, the music groups were a source of civic pride. In Frankfort, a brass band led the local charge, likely performing the contemporary works of John Philip Sousa and other patriotic marches. It was what constituted pop music then.
At some point, the popularity of municipal music faded, with brass bands being superseded, perhaps, by big bands, and likely lots of competition from music delivered via the new medium of radio. At some point the South Holland Concert Band, the Frankfort Brass Band and many of the other local horn-centric outfits went by the wayside. Some outfits survived, such as the Naperville Municipal band, which purports to have been playing in one form or another since 1859. Others had to be reborn.
That was the case in South Holland, where the band was revived as the South Holland Municipal Band in 1943 in an effort to raise spirits during World War II, according to an account of the band’s history compiled for its 75th anniversary in 2018.
The band’s rebirth was spearheaded by barber and tuba player Joe Van Schowen Sr. and retired Army band director Haskel Harr, a Percussive Arts Hall of Fame member whose drumming lesson books are still used by percussion students nationwide.
Sousa march aficionados in Frankfort had to wait a while longer. In 2005, the late Judy Herder, president of the Frankfort Historical Society, and her husband, John, had an idea that would be the highlight of a revived Ice Cream Social planned in downtown Frankfort. She had found an 1897 photo of the Frankfort Brass Band as well as some flyers for village picnics where the brass band was the featured entertainment.
“She wanted to mimic the events in the flyers she saw,” said Chris Herder, Judy and John’s son. “We pulled a lot of people from the Joliet American Legion Band, and people we knew from the community who played brass instruments. And they played at the ice cream social. So it wasn’t an organic beginning.”
The following year, band members gathered for a few practices and played at the Ice Cream Social once again, as well as at another community event.
“The gigs begot gigs, and then it became organic,” said Chris Herder, who’s now the Frankfort Brass Band’s executive director. They had 12 performances per year by 2012, when the band was asked by Honor Flight Chicago to start welcoming home veterans with patriotic performances at Midway Airport, adding more performances for a wider audience.
“We were starting to attract players who we didn’t know,” Herder said.
The Frankfort group has about 35 active members these days, with about 18-24 who show up at any given gig, he said. A few come from the west suburbs, but most are from Will County, and many play in other area bands such as the Orland Park based Southwest Concert Band and the Encore Concert Band in Mokena.
There are fewer band options in the southeast suburbs, so “people from all over” come to play in the South Holland band, Ritchie said, including a good number of current and former music educators.
“There are a lot of band directors in the band,” she said. “Almost everyone in the band is in at least one or two other bands. It’s kind of like a baseball league — we trade players back and forth.”
Another commonality is the wide variety of backgrounds of the musicians, ranging from high school students to players who’ve performed with national acts.
A percussionist in South Holland shared the stage in the 1970s with fusion jazz pioneers Weather Report and played in the inaugural Broadway run of “The Wiz” with Luther Vandross.
“When she came in for the first time she brought her resume,” Ritchie said. “We told her we’re not worthy to play with her. Here’s this world class musician playing in a community band. She just wants to play. She wants the community, and she wants the music.”
It’s also a way to help the next generation of musicians. The Frankfort Brass Band, which plays mostly marches and Americana, plays lots of gigs at events honoring veterans at places like the Will County Fair and festivals in places like Dwight and Morris, along with hometown concerts. The concerts help the band raise money it uses for scholarships for area high school musicians to participate in summer music camps as well as a couple of annual college scholarships.
Herder said it’s also a way for younger players to get experience playing alongside veteran musicians.
“We’re getting kids in here who get to sit next to some great musicians who are more than willing to help them,” he said.
While some area community bands are nonprofit groups run by volunteers, the South Holland Municipal Band is sponsored and funded by its village, a level of support that hearkens back to the early days of civic support and pride. Unlike in the late 1920s, when the South Holland band’s funding came up for a public referendum, that civic support “is getting stronger and stronger,” Ritchie said.
“The village sees our passion and how much we love making music, and how much we love going to Holland Home (a senior residence) and playing music there,” she said. “It makes me count my blessings that South Holland is so passionate about enriching the community.”
That sense of community, among band members and audiences alike, is evident to me. The 78th season of the South Holland Municipal Band also is my first playing tuba in the group. Getting to know the musicians, and playing alongside them in practice and on stage has been a highlight of my summer. It’s been great to see the scores of people who have come out to Veterans Park for the performances.
In South Holland, and Frankfort, and towns throughout the area, bands made up of area musicians offer an outlet for the arts and a link to the past.
But more importantly, they bolster a sense of community, both on stage and off.
Landmarks is a weekly column by Paul Eisenberg exploring the people, places and things that have left an indelible mark on the Southland. He can be reached at peisenberg@tribpub.com.
