Miscellaneous ↓

“Friends and family will mark Fred Contrada‘s death the same way he lived his life – in style.”
https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/11/republican_reporter_fred_contr.html
“In a nod to his love of New Orleans, where he waited tables after graduating college, his family will hold a New Orleans-style parade, led by the Expandable Brass Band, from the Forbes Library to Hotel Northampton at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.”

His obituary in the Daily Hampshire Gazette included this invitation:  “Please join us for a New Orleans-style parade and celebration of Fred’s life on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 at 12:30 p.m. when the Expandable Brass Band will lead a parade from Forbes Library to the Ballroom at the Hotel Northampton for a celebration from 1-4 p.m.”

[Our band will leave soon after the parade; we have a rehearsal elsewhere, starting at 1:15pm, for another gig.]

Our regular pattern of Sunday rehearsals (12:30-2:30pm) should resume on April 8, depending on the weather.  When the weather is warm enough, we’ll resume OUTDOOR rehearsals at Maines Field, Florence – our standard rehearsal location for the past 10 summers.   (We lack an indoor alternative for April 8, so may have to cancel that one.)

On Sunday April 15 we will rehearse at the Pathways Common House in Florence, MA.  We thank our friends at Pathways for providing such a lovely and spacious room. We have enjoyed that space once a month this winter.

We HAD originally scheduled a rehearsal for Sunday, Dec. 17th, 12:30-2:30pm, at the Common House, Pathways Co-Housing, 5 Mountain Laurel Path, Florence, MA, BUT…   that was before we committed to a gig for Friday night December 15.

We played for 2 hours Friday at a private party in Hudson, NY.   Thus, we aren’t inclined to come Sunday for a rehearsal. The Friday gig was enough FUN to last all weekend!

If you had hoped to play with us Sunday, SORRY for the inconvenience.

Next rehearsal?  Hmm… not sure when.  Our next GIG will be in 2 weeks: Sunday December 31 during FIRST NIGHT in Northampton.  We’ll post details soon.

As we prepared for our gig at Eastworks, a visiting jazz fan and photographer from Connecticut observed us and took photographs. Days later, after developing his film, Dan Castelli sent this delightful black and white photo. He titled it, “Music should be fun.”  Yes!  Thank you, Dan!

Photo by Dan Castelli, March 4, 2017

MassLive and the Springfield Republican had a great write up on us as well as this photo on the front page.
There was also a great article in the Hampshire Gazette.

We enjoyed playing for the Annual Picnic at Rockridge Retirement Community, Northampton.

Light rain didn’t dampen spirits. People danced in the parking lot as we paraded and played. Fun!

See photos send via Twitter (right).

On Sunday April 26 we’ll be playing for the Daffodil Fun Run for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County.

We’ll be rehearsing on the other Sundays in April, at our usual time: 12:30-2:30pm.

• April 5  at the Common House, Pathways Co-Housing, 1 Mountain Laurel Place, Florence, MA.
• April 12,  Common House, Pathways Co-Housing, 1 Mountain Laurel Place, Florence, MA.
• April 19, at 41 Cross Path Rd, Northampton. (Deirdre is hosting this one. Now that the weather has warmed up, she says,  “We can play on the front porch and march up and down the driveway if we want to practice our parade playing skills. We will have an audience across the street of chickens and  El Pacas.”)

No more rehearsals ’til May 10, because we have gigs the next 2 weekends. See below.  Future rehearsals (May 10- ) will be at Maines Field, Florence — outdoors in good weather, or under the roof there if raining.

We rehearse on Sundays 12:30-2:30pm. All rehearsals are open to prospective members.

The winter location is usually at the Pathways Common House (1 Mountain Laurel Path, Florence).  Please park on the right hand side of the street (as you enter) and not take up parking spaces.

March 1, March 8, March 15, and March 22 are confirmed for the Common House.

For March 29, we’ll select another location.

It’s hard to capture this Expandable and E-X-P-A-N-D-I-N-G Brass Band all in one photo. Here’s one of the best group photos taken in a while. We were playing at the Tri-County Fair in Northampton on Sunday August 31, 2014.

Our thanks to Marie Paige, our faithful “band mother,” for this photo.