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TI: So, so what did you do next then?

RH: Came down to San Jose State in the fall of '69, kind of jumped into the school here, but that was beginning of, again, there was all this activity starting on campus about the anti war movement, and so it was just starting up at that point. So there was all these, there were protests going on and different kind of things, a lot of different people talking about it and things like this, but I kind of jumped right into the academic side of things. I decided, too, that since music was not gonna be my forte or what I wanted to be doing, I was gonna stop playing, so I didn't even sign up for any music classes or anything, so I decided I was just gonna go into the academics and really try to jump into the whole engineering thing. But the music thing actually didn't get away from me. It was kind of interesting, because even though I didn't sign up for anything and didn't even tell anybody at San Jose State that I was there, right after I arrived on campus I got a phone call from the music department saying, "We're recruiting for guys to be in the marching band. Would you be interested in joining the marching band?" And I said -- "because we know you play trombone'' -- so I said, "Wow, how'd you find out?" Says, "Well, we know you play, so we just are trying to get this band together." So I said, "Well no, I decided I'm not gonna play anymore." Says, "Oh, well if we gave you a scholarship, would you be willing to march in the band for this semester?" Scholarship at that time, they basically paid tuition, but at San Jose State tuition at that time was, like, sixty bucks or something for the semester, so, but that still was a lot of money for me, so I says, "Okay, I'll march for a semester scholarship." I'd never marched in a marching band before. I hated to do that kind of, I never, because I was a, I was a symphony guy. I wasn't a marching band guy. [Laughs] So I told 'em, that's not my background, but okay, if you're gonna give me a scholarship I'll do it.

So that was kind of my experience to, jumping into that scene. It was really kind of different, too, because they're, what they were forming at that time, the band apparently had fallen apart and these guys were trying to put it back together for that particular year, and most of the people really involved with it were from the drum and bugle corps, local here guys, and so it was a very different kind of atmosphere and experience, very kind of, I don't know if you've ever been involved with drum and bugle corps guys, but that whole scene, lot of discipline involved, naturally, and that kind of thing and lot of precision. I was just amazed, because my perception of marching band, you know, bunch of hokey guys doing formation stuff and whatever, but this kind of stuff, this was really kind of sophisticated formation stuff and musically they were some really great players. So that, I was really kind of surprised after I joined in, what it was all about, but it was definitely some work for me to learn how to do that and just having to deal with the system.

TI: But I'm curious, you said that the, so it was kind of, it kind of fell apart and these drum and bugle guys kind of, kind of reinvented the marching band, so was it because of their drum and bugle background that led to this precision or was that just naturally how marching bands were in college at that time? About the time I came, I still remember the Stanford marching band and they were in their white overalls and they were just kind of coveralls, just running around in formation, and so it was a very different style.

RH: Yeah. They, because the big drum and bugle corps down here's the Vanguards, Santa Clara, so, and it's, they're really known for their precision and everything, so it was, it was kind of in that direction that they were trying to build it. And one thing, when you think about marching bands, when you see like the New Year's parade stuff, it's basically a concert band that's marching down in formation, no particular fancy stuff. They're just marching in formation. But you have your clarinets, your flutes and whatever, but this band in particular was, they wanted all brass and percussion ensembles, so they weren't looking for woodwind players. They were just looking for horn players, and so, and they were trying to build a hundred and twenty piece band in order to do that. And so, again, with that whole Tower of Power experience, whatever, so to be standing behind -- and like trombone players, you're in the front row -- to be standing behind this massive just horn sound behind you was just amazing for me. Wow, this, I never experienced this before, where you have a hundred and twenty guys, all horn players behind you playing stuff. And it was great music they were arranging, too, considering it was just what I, my perception of marching band from before.

TI: Well, and this sense of precision, too, almost the choreography of, of...

RH: Precision, yeah, and the, the level of musicianship that was required in order to execute the music itself.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.