By Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin
WE had good marching legs back then, strong chops, more hair, less body fat. It was the '70s. We were young, we were fearless, we were fab.It's been almost 20 years since last we marched with the University of Hawaii band, but now that the band is celebrating a major anniversary, we're back, Glenn Kidani and I, at the edge of a wet field of grass on a sweltering day, trying to recapture those old feelings.
The band is 75. It was 1975 when I signed on, the same year that Tom Bingham, who now runs the marching band, arrived as a graduate assistant. All these years later, I have a son in the Ilima Intermediate band, where he plays for Wallace Kumura (UH grad, 1970, trumpet), who has a daughter now at UH (sophomore, clarinet).
If this were "The Lion King," this would be the Circle of Life. As it is, we have a harmonic convergence of facts, figures and musical notes -- if nothing else a launching point for a look back at a UH institution that has gained a reputation as one of the finest bands in the nation.
The good news
When Glenn (class of 1980, trumpet) and I (1979, clarinet) were in the band we marched some really fine straight lines and man, could we turn corners.The band we're watching on the field is preparing for the first half-time show of the year, glide-stepping, crab-stepping, walking backward, marching in curves, always facing front so the wall of sound rolls straight into the stands.
"They're so much better, so much classier, so much more talented," Glenn says.
The players
The band is 98 percent local recruits: Most are on stipends that pay one-third of their tuition for the first two years; one-half in their junior and senior years. Fewer than half are music majors.
Band primer
Glenn knows because he actually did something with his music education -- he's the band director at Aiea High School. (Me, I went into newspapers. Even at UH, I only played when we were standing still, never when we were on the march.)
This band learns six shows a year (most high school bands perfect just one), and their talent level is way up there. "These guys are awesome," Glenn says. "They can play things we thought were impossible."
And this is when they're moving. When they sit down, their concert band boasts a level of musicianship that is attracting attention nationwide.
"I would say it's in the very top class of American concert bands, it's that good," says Tom Leslie, director of bands at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Leslie heard the band at the College Band Directors National Association conference in Reno in 1996, an invitation-only affair. The repertoire, he says, included difficult contemporary pieces that few bands would tackle, much less a band with so few music majors.
"The cool thing is those kids are so devoted to
their music that they'll pay their dues and they'll put the time in and it's not even their major," Leslie says. "That's a good recipe for success."
How they got from there to here
The band's growth years came under Richard Lum (class of 1947, trumpet), who was director of bands from 1960 to 1985.Strengthening the band meant building the feeder system -- high school and junior high bands, Lum says. He remembers campaigning for bigger, better band rooms at those levels, for salary differentials for band directors to cover night and weekend rehearsals, performances and football games. The Hawaii Music Educators Association and the Oahu Band Directors Association were formed to promote band programs. Annual band festivals encouraged competition.
At the same time, the university started offering band scholarships and started graduating band directors. At one point, three-quarters of all Oahu's high school band directors had been trained by Lum.
"When the school bands started to improve, that's when we started to improve at the University of Hawaii," he says.
"We started to reach great heights from the late '70s into the '80s. Growth in our school programs is mostly due to our own local products, mainly the graduates of the University of Hawaii."
Now 72, Lum still attends every UH sporting event (except baseball, "It's too cold over there," he says) and supplies drinks for the potluck that precedes each marching band performance.
And now, the bad news
Grant Okamura, director of bands at UH, faces the school year with an estimated budget of just $8,000 (not including salaries and scholarships). This is down from $34,000 six years ago.Equipment purchases have been put off to the point where it would cost $100,000 to take care of all the band's instrument needs. The uniforms worn at football games were purchased two decades ago. They were only supposed to last eight years.
Okamura (class of 1971, french horn) says the band is actually borrowing instruments from the high schools.
"We call 10 schools to find one clarinet here, one flute not being used over there." After all, it's not like the high schools are rolling in dough, either.
He keeps waiting for the university's financial situation to improve. "Somewhere along the line there's going to be a crisis."
And yet the program grows and improves, Okamura says. The marching band is doing more complex routines; the concert band is handling a challenging repertoire.
With the addition of a fall concert band, the program has been attracting more students interested in music careers, either as performers or teachers.
"It seems like we have such an incredible band program here and it's a secret."
Someone is paying attention
Kids at the high school and junior high level see this as the band to grow up into."The first time I saw them play I said, 'I got to play with that band,' " recalls Mililani High graduate Dwayne Campos (sophomore, percussion).
"We look at the UH, we want to be at that level," says Aiea grad Nick Francis (freshman, tuba), one of Glenn's kids.
Wallace Kumura encourages his Ilima students to start thinking about the UH band, even though they're only in middle school.There's been so much growth since his marching days, Kumura says. "We were the very first UH marching band and we did it in the old stadium. I lost my shoe in that stadium because it was so muddy."
Things the bandmaster yells at you
"Gang, we need a whole lot more energy in the marching and the playing," Tom Bingham (master's degree, 1980, clarinet) is hollering.It's the same thing he used to yell at Glenn and me back when the Earth was new.
That and, "There should be much less wiggling between numbers."
So here we are back on the field, 20 minutes past when rehearsal was supposed to end. It's hot, it's been raining, the setting sun is searing our eyeballs.
Yeah, I remember this.
Finally, Bingham and the band reach the end of the show they'll perform at Aloha Stadium in two more days. "Thunderous applause," he predicts. "They throw money, you don't get to pick it up, I do."
If you ever played with the University of Hawaii band, you're wanted for a special half-time show during the homecoming game Nov. 7. Did you march?
The band hopes to field at least 200 alumni, including a representative from every class since 1946.
If you're up to marching in celebration of the band's 75th year, call the band office at 956-7657.
