Humboldt Bay Brass Band Brings Back the Lost “Redwood Highway March” in October 27 Concert

In its only local appearance this year, the Humboldt Bay Brass Band will revive a lost work by a local composer from several generations ago. Its title is “The Redwood Highway March.”

“Several weeks ago, the Humboldt County Historical Society received a box of music from someone in Seattle, who found twenty band compositions in storage in an apartment building,” explains band director and HSU Music professor Gil Cline. Titles which included words such as “Eureka” and “Big Lagoon” prompted the Seattle resident to send the music to Humboldt County historians.

“It turned out to be the work of Professor Frank Flowers, who was the Eureka High School band director in the 1920s and 30s,” said Cline. Flowers was also a cornet soloist as well as a composer. The twenty works, Cline believes, “were likely part of the repertory of the Redwood Empire Concert Band, which for many years played weekend concerts at the bandstand in Eureka’s Sequoia Park.”

Gil Cline examined the musical find, and with the Humboldt Historical Society’s blessings, scheduled the revival of one piece, called “The Redwood Highway March.”

This will be a highlight of the Humboldt Bay Band’s fall concert on Saturday, October 27 at the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Because the band will be “on academic break” until the fall of 2008, this will be its only local concert this year. HBBB, a true all-brass band in the British style, is composed of some of the best brass players from North Coast communities as far away as Brookings, Oregon, as well as students.

Besides the Flowers revival, this year’s program features an energetic overture by Rossini, “English Folk Songs” by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and two recent works by local composer, Treblig Enilc.

The last remaining copies of the Band’s CD, “Pageantry of Brass” will be on sale at the concert, the final time it will be offered.

The musicians of the Humboldt Bay Brass Band are: Cornets - Chris Cox, Tristan Kadish, William Zoller, Jennifer Sisk, Clara Navarro, Joyce Carter, John Ferriera, Gary Ross;E flat Tenors - Matt Morgan, Leon Hamilton, Anwyn Halliday; Trombones - Bodie Pfost, Melissa Gussin, Toshi Noguchi; Baritones – Phil Sams, Dick LaForge; Euphonium - George Ritscher, Matt Sullivan; E flat Tubas - Gregg Moore, Joe Eckert; B flat Tubas - Jerry Carter, Damien Adams, Elizabeth Cruz; Percussion – Jessica Bishop, Grace Kerr, and Julia Chase.

Media: KIEM-TV news, Arcata Eye, Eureka Times-Standard, Eureka Reporter.