It is time to talk to Katie Humphrey, president of the world, president of the, of the Bell
City Brands works. And I gave you a, a, a, a promotion. Yeah, we always need a new president
to the world. Um, now, how many bands are you involved with? Three, three Bell City
Brands works. We're seeing concert band and, kind of, perhaps, do they ever coincide where
you got to be at the same place at the same time? Um, occasionally there's can be a slight
conflict for rehearsals, but the directors talked to each other and adjust typically. Sometimes
it's unavoidable, but they all get along. A lot of us play in all three. So, well, then
you got to do that Superman thing where he divides himself. Right. It's if only that were
possible. Yeah. Even Superman could do that. He could divide himself and, uh, have been
two places of one time. Right. Only in the, only in the magazine and the movie you can
do it on the TV show that I love to give that a try though. The Bell City Brands works.
Now you've been in business for how long? How many seasons? This is our 36 season. Wow.
And we're right at the tail end of it or upcoming concert is the last one of the season.
Now, who, uh, who put it together? Give it a little history of it, can you? Oh, I didn't
bring those notes with me, but basically, uh, what do you think you're going to come here
and just waltz through this segment now? Gosh. All right. So there were a lot of musicians
in town that obviously knew each other because they played in different groups together. Um,
a lot of the core of the Bell City Brands works came from the drum core community. A lot
of those people knew one another. And then the other kind of hub was the music department
at UW Parkside. So a lot of people knew each other from there. Um, a lot of us were
students of Johnny Hamcus who taught a lot of brass students in both were seen in Kenosha.
So, um, Gary King and, um, Ken, Ken, Ken, I can't think of his last name. Ken, Ken,
Ken, you know, you know, um, they were the founders and they, um, got everything organized.
I do have a tub of all the old, um, minutes and things. And there's a lot of great information
in there. Only I had brought it with me. Um, I, I do have a cheat sheet, but I didn't
bring that either. Um, but anyway, um, they, they started playing together, um, and built
up this band. And the, the two of them have now passed away the, the founders, but the
rest of us are still keeping on. And I would say actually getting better and better.
Okay. Now, you do not have any in all the band you're in. There was in one violin. That
is true. Now, do you? Yes, true. I occasionally sub for the Parkside community orchestra. And
when I'm there, there are strings. I have nothing against strings. But, well, let's see,
concert band, brass city, we're a brass city pops. Uh, some of you have something against.
No, not really. A lot of the musicians do play in the orchestra on a regular basis.
How many instruments do you play? Just two. French horn is my main instrument. And I play piano.
You do play piano. Okay. Not well, but I do play piano. Now, I told you for that on here,
I'm taking piano lessons now for seems like years. And I just don't practice enough. And that's
the way you got to learn. I understand my wife is teaching me and she teaches 12 year old girl.
My 12 year old girl is like a concert pianist already. And I'm like, let's see, Mary had a little
asian beyond that. But I learned to play with two hands now. That's great. Now, here's what I
never expect when I learned to play. There were two stabs. There's the treble cleft and the
bass staff. And you got to look at it in the same time. And there's two on different things,
right? And here's what I found out where the G cleft is on the top scale. The G note is not on
the bottom scale in the same spot. That's correct. And I'm trying to compute all this information
while I'm playing. And it's very, very difficult. I mean, my brother saw Lady Gaga in concert
for two and a half hours in New York on the piano, just playing the piano, show tunes,
whatever hits were. And no music on there, just from her brain, playing with, he said it was
just amazing to watch Lady Gaga play this piano for her concert. You've just made a wonderful
argument for music and education, because it's good for your brain. It must be because she's
no music in front of her. I saw her at the Oscars ones playing the music from the sound of music.
There's no music in front of this woman. She's just playing it. Yeah, I never was that person,
but I need music to play. So I got to the point now where I can actually not have to look at the
keys, where I can look at the music. My eyeballs are going up and down, up and down. I don't know.
I just don't have that musicality in me like some people do. I give you a lot of credit for
for trying it. Now I know when I see Mark, I conduct the concert band. He's got like 16
staves of music for each instrument in front of him. I mean, that's how a lot to keep your eye on.
Yeah, I don't know how conductors do that, but they study there. It's called a score when it's
got all the parts in one sheet. And they have to know it. They can't be just reading it.
So let's talk about your next concert with the Bell City brass works. It is the music of a Spaniard,
which is same. That's right. So it's on Sunday, June 8th at 3 o'clock at UW Parkside,
in the Rita, Rita Talent Pick and Regional Center for the Arts and Humanities, which is
right on campus, kind of near the athletic building. We play in the Francis Bedford concert hall,
which is probably the best venue in the whole area. It's beautiful, aesthetically,
acoustically, everything about it is wonderful. A lot of us actually got to know Francis Bedford
when we were students there at Parkside. So she was a harpsichord player. She taught
group piano to music majors, among other things. And we all just really respected her. And she was
very generous to the music department. And while she was still alive donated money for that theater,
and she was often an attendance at our concerts there. And she just, within the last two years,
she passed away. But she left a wonderful legacy and I think of her every time.
I mean, that's all you can do with your life. Leave something behind that will last. I mean,
you can't, you know, what more can you do? So that's great. I see one of the songs, Malaguania.
Yeah, yeah. Every Spanish theme concert has to have Malaguania. Can you play Lady of Spain?
Oh, but everybody who learns the accordion has to learn Lady of Spain.
But Malaguania has some great horn parts in it that are very prominent. So you have to come
and hear it. Yeah, Malaguania. What are some of the other tunes we're going to hear?
We're going to hear Children of Sanchez, which is Chuck Mangione, chart, Amparito Roca,
Festa De La Vida, part of my attempt at these words, but they're...
You don't have to pronounce it, it's at the volume.
They're wonderfully spirited Latin music. You can't help but feel it. Doug
programs the music and does a beautiful job. Doug Johnson is who I'm referring to. He's our
music director and conductor. He's been with the band 26 years, I think it is.
And he knows as well. He pushes us to, you know,
to play advanced music. Who programs these concerts? Doug. Oh, he does everything. Yeah.
I mean, he gets some help from some of the... You have to get the music rights, though,
all this stuff, too. Well, the brass works that's developed up a very extensive music library.
And so it's stuff that we've purchased. All of our, most of our music comes from the
the British brass band. brass bands were a big thing in in in Britain. There are a lot of
towns that would have their own brass band. It was kind of like having a sports team. They would
compete against each other. And there's specific instrumentation that those bands are created to do.
There weren't French horns in those bands. There's something called alto horns. So we have
French horns, which is also a way to do it. But those arrangements, we purchased those and then
we have smart people that transpose for the French horn to play alto horn parts. So the alto horn
is a little different key. Maybe you haven't learned about keys yet. No. Anyway, there's some
magic that has to happen before we're able to read the music. But anyway, we've got quite a library
of of tunes. And we continue to purchase new music also. So we're still growing.
Well, people who realize radio stations, we have to pay for all the music we play. It's not free.
Right. You don't just put a song on the radio. It is like BMI ASCAP, CSAC, all these music rights
organizations. And even churches when they play music, this must be paying for that music. Most
do. And we all do. I mean, you have to have any public performance of a song. That's how the
writers, not the performers, but the writers get their money. And there are people watching out
for that stuff. And they were, they report you. If you're doing a public performance. And the
people at BMI ASCAP and CSAC get after you're real fast to get their money. I mean, there's a
certain point in time when that expires, but we will none of us all live. Yeah, the songs we're
playing don't expire very soon. We're playing all the hits. Getting up for you's here from Bell
City brass works. And if some more brass facts, right? I do. I found my notes. I was kind of
floundering about earlier to try to find. So when the group first started, it was April 20th,
1988. And this was the, the, the, the, the flyer that tried to attract local brass players.
Pucker up and bring your horn and a music stand. Bell City's going to have a brass band.
So they meant for the first time at tradewins village in Uptown, which it's long gone. But bring
your brass down. So, um, so at the group now has nine women and 33 men. So I am a minority
in the group. I don't know. Maybe more men play brass instruments. Or we're aged. The youngest
member is 26. The oldest is 97 97 97. So the fountain of youth exists. 90. I hope it's 97. I know
what it is from it is. Wow. So we've got people, um, the longevity of the group. I did a little
survey of everybody to get these facts. Um, so most, um, there's four that have been in a year,
10 that have been in two to five years, five that have been in six to 10 years, seven that have
been in 11 to 20 years. And more than 20 years is 14. And I'm in that group. Good for you.
Now, let's give a quick review of what's coming up. The music of Espanya. Give me the dates,
times, the admission is free. But this is going to be a pass around if you want to. Right. Right.
Right. So, um, it's Sunday, June 8th at three o'clock in the Francis Bedford concert hall at UW Parkside.
And mission is free. We do a free will offering. Um, all of us are volunteers. Uh, so we do get some
help from this particular concert from Roger Palm and Chevrolet of Union Grove. So I should
mention that. Um, and typically this concert is out in Union Grove at the high school. But we're
at Parkside, um, which is great. But, um, the reason we're not at Union Grove is they had some
planned construction of their school. And they, we weren't going to, we could get in the building,
but there would be no parking. So, and you have to help construct in, you know, bring a ladder
and hammer and so on. Right. Yeah. We had to work for it. And yeah, we're musicians. We don't
do. And it's right next to petrifying springs, because I go there all the time to load up on
their aquifer water for my wife. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we go there. And I pass the theater every time
on my way. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a good landmark. If you're not familiar with the UW Parkside campus,
we're in the building that's on kind of that side of the, uh, the campus. This brings in.
Well, thank you for coming in. Absolutely. It's always pleasure. The music of a spanya.
Yes. Please, please, please, come. You'll be inspired. Yeah. We have to cast an ex and everything.
You're bringing the cast an ex there. Oh, the percussion. We do have percussion. So in addition
to the brass, we do have percussion to support us. And yeah, they've got lots of cool stuff going
on back there. Thank you, Katie. Thank you. And of course, we'll see you again with the concert
band kicking off in July. They were seeing concert band. Yep. All right. Thank you very much.
Katie Humphrey, who's the president of the board of the Bell City brass works. She's also in
the Kenosia pop. She's also at the, at the, uh, routine concert band, the New York Philharmonic,
the, uh, all these bands and groups. You got to be, you got to keep track of them. Thank you, Katie.
