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AI: Well, one area that you did get very involved in was music at Poston.

GY: Uh-huh, yeah.

AI: And I was wondering if you would tell us how did you get involved with the, with the band and the music?

GY: Yes. I became interested in jazz several years ago, in like, around '35, '36, when I was high school. And never did much in terms of learning to improve my playing the saxophone, which I learned in high school. I recall before camp, a group of Nisei kids got together, and we tried to play Artie Shaw's "Begin the Beguine," which was a top hit in those days. It didn't work very well. We bought the arrangement, and then we sort of got together in the garage. It didn't sound very good. We gave it up in no time. [Laughs] The first and only rehearsal we had, but it was a beginning.

So then in camp, I discovered others who were very much interested in, in this kind of music. As a matter of fact, even the assembly centers -- it's amazing -- for example, at Santa Anita, where there were large groups of kids from LA, they had a dance band at the assembly center, organized and going strong. They even had, had jazz concerts at night, playing records, of course. And discovered, or not -- excuse me -- discussed jazz artists at that time who were very outstanding. And it was kind of neat. So you -- so it kind of made me feel good when I heard this, that, and I realized this, was that among the Niseis, there was a small group of people who are very progressive, very much into music, enjoyed swing, jazz, you know, and, of course, classical music, too.

But because of my interests, to discover youngsters, Japanese Americans, Niseis, digging this kind of music... and in camp, somehow -- I don't know whose idea it was, but a dance band was organized, and the recreation department, which was a part of a, an organized part of the whole system in Poston, helped to sponsor a dance band. And there was a young man, Hide Kawano, who was seventeen years old at the time, who had, who was a high school dropout but very much a, a whiz at playing drums. And he used to play some swing and jazz before he went to, before we to camp, who was the leader of the band. He picked up the trumpet, learned how to play the trumpet somewhere along the line before he dropped out in junior high school/high school. But he was, he was consumed with swing music and jazz, just really -- that's all he wanted to do. And so here was this great opportunity. All of these potential musicians. Not too many. Maybe a dozen or so out of ten thousand, who played some instrument of some sort that may have made up a dance band. So through the, probably the camp newsletter, announcement was made that there was going to be a dance band and please come to the first rehearsal if you're interested. And it's probably, that's how it started. This is what happened in most bands -- or in other camps.

And eventually we were able to gather four saxophones -- two tenors, two altos. And I think there were three trumpets and one trombone. We had a guitar player, a drummer, and a piano player. And the guitar player was kind of interesting in that he was a nice-looking young man, very tall, but he loved cowboy music in those days. We call it western music, but in those days, cowboy music, and he wore cowboy boots and some fancy shirt, sing cowboy songs, Gene Autry kinds of things. But he learned how to play, just learned some rhythm guitar. The drummer, Haruo Fujisawa, "Foozie." He's bald-headed now. But his drums were sent to camp by some white friends of his back home. So that was kind of neat. And he had played this kind of music in high school, so he was pretty well advanced in that respect. The piano was, piano player was another person who sort of hang, hung out with the guitar player. And, and he knew, he was able to read music but not too familiar with swing or jazz. And the others had more or less music in school, so forth.

Bought arrangements by mail, mostly popular things like Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade," which was our theme song, and several other Glenn Miller tunes. And (we) had Tommy Dorsey tunes. A few swing numbers by Glen Grey -- excuse me -- Count Basie. We rehearsed on weekends and in the evenings, because most of us had jobs other than playing. In other camps, there were dance bands which were, was, which was a part of the recreation department scene, the music department scene, so that's all they did, rehearsed and played gigs. And it was kind of neat for them. We were paid, we were paid about -- they were paid. I wasn't paid. Maybe about $12 a month. I think the drummer and the piano player -- no, just the drummer may have been on the payroll of the recreation department. But it was something that could not be done earlier because of a lack of personnel.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.