After deciding on the name, the band turned its attention to the type of music to play.
We discarded flute ensemble works after the tuba players got tired of trilling all
the time.
We had to give up on salsa because Byron kept putting down his trumpet, standing up and
shimmying. (We got a LOT of complaints about that from our audiences!)
It looked like German music would work
but, well, you just can't play a polka without drinking beer and we REALLY liked playing polkas. (We got a LOT
of complaints about that from Spouses.) Actually we still have a repertoire of German music
that we pull out for Octoberfests and those occasions when the spouses are out of town.
Then we tried dixieland and we loved it. The Tubas didn't have to think too much, the
trombones got to wah-wah a lot and it actually sounded better when the clarinets were playing
something different than everybody else. The trumpets? Well, they didn't notice anything
different.
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