Talking to Alfredo Gomez about the origins of the Gay Marching Band that first marched in the parade in 1979: Part 2.
The instruments start coming together …
'We had trombones, we had clarinets, saxophones, we had a tuba, and Tom (Blackman) with the percussion. Then it became a struggle for me with the organizational side of things because I worked at Shari's at night, and that proved to be difficult for me to participate as whole-heartedly as I would have liked. I thought my dream was going away.
'So Mary Peck, bless her heart, stepped up to the plate, and she took charge. Mary became our trouper. She was the one who galvanized the troops, and she was out there on Sundays when I was working, parading everyone at Oz Park.
'So we started putting together what we were going to wear and also did fundraising because we needed money to buy drums and poles and flags. We used to fundraise in the old-fashioned way by going to the bars with a big jar. It would be announced that this year's parade would have a marching band, so support the band. I remember one of our fundraising events was at Alfie's, and they were so nice to us over there.
'Most of the fundraising was in bars because there weren't too many gay businesses. It was a struggle. After some of the fundraising events I faded out for a bit because I got a new job with AMTRAK and at the beginning I had to travel all over the place. That put a stress on me. But what I was satisfied with was that it was on its way.
'I didn't make it on that first parade because I had to go to Detroit, but it was magnificent. It won for best unit and Mary Peck still has that plaque. In the interim, there needed to be some leadership roles and so Nick Kelly became president.'
Connection with the Chorus …
'Jerry Carlson, the trumpet player from Michigan, was one of the first members of the band at the first meeting. Jerry was also in voice, and he and Nick started visioning other things, other musical events, and one of them was to have a men's chorus. At the beginning, though, I think it was mixed because there were some women singing. Gordon Chiola, the alto sax, was also in both groups. Several of the band were singers and in both groups.
'I was never in the Windy City Gay Men's Chorus. Much later I joined the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus in a production of the Mikado. The marching band played in three parades and there were several rumors about why it stopped and one was that the band became a drain on the parent group because the Chorus saw themselves as bringing in all the money. The parent group was Windy City Performing Arts and later it was Toddlin' Town. There was a little bit of friction, and then there was the Artemis Singers, who wouldn't sing anything composed by men. They were feminists.
'I didn't get involved in those episodes and there were some! When the band split from the parent group they disappeared for a while. Marvin Carlton stepped in. He was fabulous on the oboe, and he was a great orchestral conductor, but as far as his skills with wind ensembles and community groups, he didn't have it together. My biggest problem with that whole thing was that people were seeing money to see these groups and the charm of it being gay wore off. OK so you made a statement and now what are you going to do with that statement. Unfortunately, the band never saw the light, whereas the Chorus had great visionary leadership and they knew exactly where they were headed.
'You can't pin it on the conductor because there's a group that oversees the conductor and is in a leadership role as well. There were differences of opinion ... . It was one thing to show up at the rehearsals and just sit and play, but the other side, which I grew up with, was that you sat and played and worked the music out. It has to sound good because people are paying money.
'It's fun when you're marching because you don't have to be musically perfect, but in a concert setting it was totally different. The instrumentation was sometimes off and some of the musical selections didn't match.'
After the band left the
Windy City Performing Arts …
'I wasn't directly involved with that. The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth, that there was so much dissatisfaction and dissention going on. I figured that at some point some other group would form.
'Apparently, Anthony Parsons and a few others were still in communication and so they got Marvin Carlton and that's when they got a group playing over on School Street. They were still called the Chicago Gay Pride Band and they lasted for two concerts.
'When the new group took over and switched names to the Chicago Gay/Lesbian Community Band in 1982, I got involved again. That was because Les Dahl was the conductor and I heard he was fabulous. Les really worked the group and the caliber of musicianship was much higher.
'The struggle we always had was that some people wanted it to be a social gathering of musicians, while others wanted it to be a performing group and that meant standards. Those two groups were always at each other's throats. Les was able to bridge the two.'
Go visit www.lakesidepride.org/ to see what the Lakeside Pride Musical Ensembles are doing now. I highly recommend the SHOUT! Jazz Ensemble.