By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Campbell High School tuba player Robert Coburn,
horn held high, takes the field with the
Saber marching band.

---

Can’t keep a
good band down

16 high school bands
take the field for the
Rainbow Invitational Festival

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

Approximately 75 years ago, when the bumptious game of football became the rage on college campuses, it had, unlike the grand game of baseball, a hole in the middle, a period of inactivity, like a stalemate on the Western Front, like the center of a doughnut. Military cadet bands sitting on the sideline began to fill the hole with old-fashioned marching music.

The bands began to march around while playing the marching music. Makes sense. Hard to sit still when you're grooving on Sousa.

Then, it happened.

Director of the University of Hawaii Rainbow Marching Band Thomas Bingham doesn't quite recollect who or how or where or when, but the what is what made all the difference. "This band was marching around in a square, and then, for the finale, they formed a letter of the alphabet! It was radical!"

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Aiea High tuba player Chae Ho Bae performs
shirtless in the comic number, "YMCA."

---

The crowd went, apparently, nuts. Half-time entertainment was born. Marching bands became a thoroughly American art form, as tenuously connected to the European martial tradition of regimental orchestras as jazz is to African slave chants, as comic books are to Medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Last night at Honolulu Stadium, the 18th Annual Rainbow Invitational Marching Band Festival drew bands from 16 high schools plus the university. How big a deal was it? Last night's audience numbered 6,099, watching 1,500 band members.

The bands are judged by a crew of experts and given "festival ratings" -- Excellent, Superior, Good. The fields are General Effect, Percussion, Color Guard and Drum Majors. No one wins, no one loses.

"The kids aren't competing against each other, they're competing against a standard," said Bingham, who trail-bosses the Meadow Gold-sponsored event. "And -- best of all -- the bands get a videotape of their performance with a running commentary by the judges. That's really useful for a different perspective."

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Kaimuki High bandsmen practice in their jester costumes.
The snare drummers, from left, are Kerridan Lopez,
Michael Igarashi and Dustin Lui.

---

Interest in marching bands seems to wax or wane, and we're now in a wax cycle. "Nanakuli, especially in the last three years, has really come along," said Bingham. "And if you're in a marching band at a college or university, it's part of a total music program and you can get scholarships. Plus, you help school spirit at games and events."

It isn't easy. The acoustics are terrible. The rolling cadences of the drums rumble like rain on the roof -- if rain could boogie-woogie -- and the turbojet blare of the horns and woodwinds generally sound like car horns.

"It's a lot to ask of a kid -- afternoons and weekends rehearsing," said Bingham. "It's hard enough to play music while sitting down."

"Where else can I bang on a drum?" explained Everett Inamase, 17, bass drummer at Kaimuki. "It's the only thing I do where I get to make lots of noise."

Kristen Honda of Moanalua, also 17 and a bass drummer, actually switched from bassoon for the same reason. "If I'm mad at people, I can take it out on the drum. But the best thing about being in band is meeting all these people."

The "sense of discipline" in mastering the intricate music and choreography appeals to saxophonist Reid Lyons, 17, of Moanalua. "When we start going with full-on rhythm and stuff, it's hard, but it feels good to master it."

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Sheena Lani's shirt makes light of her duties as
drum major for Waialua High. Malia Agustin
makes up her face

---

And if band's hard, try swinging around those flags. Kristine Dato, 18, of Campbell, started out playing flute in band, then auditioned for flags and got it. "It's all teamwork, and dedication, and it's your complete life for three months a year," she said.

Then there are the uniforms. It's virtually impossible to look cool in a marching band uniform, which is why bands generally stick to your standard-issue Bavarian oompah outfit.

The music can, and generally is, anything. "Oh, they play jazz, pop and rock -- anything goes," said Bingham. At last night's event, only "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "Buenos Aires" were covered by more than one band. Popular melodies mostly belonged to Disney animated soundtracks, or Broadway, or '50s-era rock-lite, or popular classics. No swing, no Sousa.

One exception was an elegiac Celtic melody from "Lord of the Dance," performed masterfully by the Waianae High School Band.

"We were looking to do something different," said band director Marissa Tanimura. "No, we didn't need bagpipes for a Celtic melody -- the tubas and piccolos are quite enough. We wanted a piece with a good, quiet melody that would swell and bring you in. We didn't want to bang anyone over the head right off."

Speaking of banging people over the head, is it possible for a marching band to get by without playing the theme to "Hawaii Five-O"?

"Definitely," said Tanimura. "But very unlikely."