Ontario/Chaffey Community Show Band keyed to kick off new season
By CHRISTINA GUERRERO, STAFF WRITER
The Ontario/Chaffey Community Show Band will present its first official concert of the season at the Chaffey High School Auditorium.
"This community band has been one of the strongest organizations since 1958," said Jack Mercer, the band's director and namesake of Ontario's Community Bandstand.
Vocalist Bonnie Bishop, 43, of Rialto said, "He has an excellent variety of music that he performs with the orchestra and singers. It's hard to find a place to go see a band perform all the favorite classics from the past."
For each show Mercer creates a story line that is connected by the music, and a narrator weaves the ideas together, Mercer said.
"When our audience leaves they not only have been entertained, but they go home knowing something they didn't know before," he said.
Trumpeter Larry Pitcher, 61, of Ontario, said, "Jack does a great job. He's a good show man. He puts together a program that the musicians in the band enjoy playing and the audience enjoys listening to - he puts together a good combination."
Pitcher, who will be soloing with the band for this show, will perform "Grand Russian Fantasia," an old virtuoso-type solo, and "Ode For Trumpet," a contemporary melody type of song, he said.
Bonnie Bishop will sing "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby" and "It Don't Mean A Thing," and Chris McAleer,47, of Upland will sing "At Last" and "Someone to Watch Over Me" during the show.
The 70-member band, which was formerly made up of Chaffey High School alumni, now has members from at least two dozen nearby communities, including Victorville, Pasadena, Riverside, Lake Elsinor, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Etiwanda, San Bernardino and Redlands, Mercer said.
Adult musicians are welcome to participate, and can meet with the band for rehearsals on Mondays at the Chaffey High School band room from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m., Mercer said.
"It's open to anyone who wants to join, and there are no auditions," he said. "If they have red blood running through their veins that's all they need."
The band, which was organized in 1985, performs monthly from October through July for an audience of 800 to 1,000 people, Mercer said.
"One of the problems that a community band has is competing with the television, theater and all other forms of professional entertainment," he said. "We have to become professional if we want to get an audience."
Since 1997, the band's performances have been aired on Channel 3, and as ambassadors of good will, the band has taken greetings and programs to various places, including Los Angeles, Disneyland, Bullhead City, Laughlin and Lake Havasu, Mercer said.
Mercer, 80, of Ontario received a master's degree in music education from Northwestern University, and spent 43 years directing high school bands.
Under his direction, the Chaffey Marching Tiger Band with 200 band members and a 200 girl drill team was a regular entertainer at Los Angeles Rams' and San Diego Chargers' football games and performed at the Pro Bowl at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1966.
In 1962, Mercer established the Chaffey Tournament of Bands, the first competitive marching event in Southern California, he said. When he retired in 1986, former Chaffey High School students urged him to organize an alumni band, which became the Ontario/Chaffey Community Show Band.
Mercer has written two books, "The Band Director's Brain Bank" and "The Band Director's Burn Out," and has contributed numerous articles to the "Instrumentalist" magazine.
In order to become a band director Mercer said he had to learn to play all of the instruments.
"If you want to be able to teach the instrument, you have to know it well enough to teach it to someone who is a beginner," he said. "I can play them all, but you wouldn't want to hear me play them,"
What: Strike Up the Band!
When: Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Gardiner Spring Auditorium, 1245 N. Euclid Ave.
Cost: free
Information: www.showband.net
