AHCCBand

Santa Maria has a musical treasure which deserves to be better known. It's the 80-member Hancock College/Santa Maria Community Concert Band, our own Central Coast purveyors of Pops.

The upcoming program (16March2002) will include "Perpetual Motion" by Strauss, "March to the Scaffold" by Berlioz, a medley of Irving Berlin tunes, music from "Lord of the Rings," and, of course, those favorite band marches.

It's great band music, and it's made the musicians into great friends.

Band Director Gary Thompson and Concertmaster Lloyd Pipes preside over a slightly zany, kibitzing crew of talented musicians who play several public concerts each year - and many of the players, including these two, have been doing so for some time.

Thompson, 63, retired from his post as junior high school band and choral director for the Lucia Mar School District in 1994, after more than 22 years of teaching music and he still gets greetings from his former students. He has been directing the Community Concert Band for 25 years.

Pipes, 84, retired from the Guadalupe Union School District in 1983, leaving behind "The Mean Green Machine," an elementary/junior high school band and devoted former students. He has been a member of the Community Concert Band for 29 years.

The collusion of these two Music Men has resulted in sometimes unexpected activities.

One of the constants is a weekly pre-rehearsal dinner at IHOP for "at least 25 years," Thompson said.

"We're attuned to each another," said Thompson, a pun lover who enjoys linguistically torturing his friends.

"Lloyd is my trusted and valued high advisor. He's the eldest in the band. The youngest is about 15," Thompson continued. "High school kids can take this class for credit. Musicians from the community join in for fun. The band has grown from about 35 members to between 75-80, when we're all there.

"We're just like a family. We've had couples meeting and marrying, some divorces, births, deaths - a lot of love and a lot of upsets."

Pipes defines his duties of concertmaster as a role which also includes playing "Principal clarinet and being the gofer ...'I go for anything they need," he grins.

Thompson and Pipes speak with great affection of the late Chris Kuzell, music director at Hancock College for many years, who started the Community Concert Band in about 1964.

His legacy became a band of musicians - and more, including the tendency for shenanigans by some band members.

"It's mostly the drum players" who are responsible for that part, Thompson claims.

"Yeah, that percussion section, "Pipes interjected. He and Thompson both chortle remembering one of the times they were told to "pipe down."

"When you have a 75-piece band, you do play loud," Thompson said. "We were entertaining the folks in the (Town Center) Mall when one of the security people walks across our banner on the floor; walks up to me and says, 'Could you play just a little bit softer? The people in the theater can't hear!"

Thompson is often the brunt of practical jokes from band members. "We always try to be as entertaining as we can be and to so some things that have visual interest," he said, adding that even he doesn't know what that will be at times.

Once, during a concert piece called "Jungle Fantasy," the drummers suddenly popped pith helmets on their heads and Thompson was presented with a spear to use as a baton.

Another time, he was in on the joke. A concert was to end with Hawaiian music. Nancie Only, college liaison, band member and Thompson's "lady friend," cooked up a performance which came as a surprise not only to the audience, but to the band.

Thompson remembers:

"Nancie is from Maui and had taught hula. She came out in full regalia and did a hula to the music. I was afraid that all the guys would be watching her and not their music," he laughed.

Music Men, page #2