6
Tuesday, June 20, 1972
University Summer Kansan
Kansan Staff Photos by Pris Brandsted and Hank Young
Concerto
By MARY PITMAN Kansan Staff Writer
For homemade ice cream and
old-fashioned mosquito bites,
come to a band concert in South
Park on Wednesday night this
summer.
The concerts, which last from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., probably take place in theaters, where they music and compete good, according to Jerome Woolson, secretary of local union S12 of the American Federation of Musicians.
Even if it's warm, there's still "a good breeze down there," Newsom said.
About two hundred people went to Wednesday's concert, Newswom estimated, but there should be good crowds by the end of July.
The audience includes some long-time attendants. "They, their 'faces'," said Newsm, "and I don't know who they are."
CHAIRS ARE PROVIDED by the Lawrence recreation department but, as Newsworn explained, the chairs are fitted with handles and stretch out on the grass.
People from the audience call
people to play their instruments
and the versatile band can play
anything from overtures to popular
songs, and show music and
songwriting.
Band members vary in age and experience. Some, like former Lawrence mayor John Weatherwax, have been with the band since 1983. The band's members are drawn from the faculty, administration and student body of the University of Kansas explained Newsom.
KU REGISTRAR William
KU
SUMmer. Other band players
include public school band teachers
and even high school students
Saxophone player Clyde Bysom, a long-time member of the band, explained in an interview at his home that band concerts were a tradition here and back to Lawrence's earliest days.
"they tore a bandstand down
downstairs." Byson remembered
inscribed on one stone of the
present band shell is the date
Byson, a Lawrence resident since he was in the third grade, played in South Park band concerts as a member of a Boy's Band 40 years ago. He later played there in a high school
FIETTEEN YEARS AGO
FIETTEEN YEARS AGO
a bass with a 8-piece band,
according to Bysom. At that time
the South Park band shell was
"It wasn't strong enough," said Bysom "to hold up a hand."
But with repairs and the addition of an outside stairway, the wall was put in use. Through the years, said Bysom, the number of concerts and the size of the band has continuously grown till it can do seven or eight concerts (each summer) with a 40-piece band.
But the band still has no one to
play the bassoon, and often no oboe-player, said Bysom.
STILL, THERE'S "a lot of talent" and the music is good.
"We get into some pretty deep music sometimes," said Byson. "The director does that to keep you on your toes."
Bysom himself started on the clarinet and later switched to the saxophone. He likes all kinds of instruments and blood, Sweet, and Tequila.
one long band music of the 40% "MUSIC IS so important in the Bysom household that a brass musical note is enlaborated on by his father." Bysom's regular employment with the Reuter Organ Co. does not involve his talent for the saxophone at all. He must play every instrument whose instrument is an avocation, try to keep his embouchers in shape during the winter in order to play in the summer.
But, said Bysom, "My first love is the big hand of your life."
Bysom praised highly the homemade ice cream sold at the concerts, but he warned sadly, "If you're a drummer, play. If you're a drummer, you've got it made." But if you play a bass, you have to wait till
"Musicians are pretty much
hums," says B阪. "They like
to play whenever they get an
opportunity."
But playing in the band, though fun, is not really relaxing. Sometimes after a concert, it's hard to find a place where you feel. Said Byson, "It 'tives you up."