Mr Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band
(Published in The Brass Herald)

"Where he goes, they follow. When he speaks, they listen. When he jokes, they laugh." A quote from the Jack Daniel's billboard advert in a London Underground Station which inspired an article about the Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band. Knowing substantially more about the Whiskey than the Band I delved a little deeper and discovered a distinct musical heritage with roots not too dissimilar to the brass band tradition in the UK. A group of 12 professional musicians who are keeping alive a golden piece of American culture.

In 1892, Lynchburg's famous distiller, Mr Jasper Newton 'Jack' Daniel, invested $227 in the purchase of a full complement of brand new nickel plated 'conical horns'. This soon turned into money well spent with 13 band members giving the 361 residents of the small town a new and lively form of entertainment.

In 1889, according to Harper's Weekly, there were more than 10,000 small town bands in the U.S. and probably twice that number by the turn of the century. They were a genuine home-grown American institution, performing at every national and local holiday with music from Sousa and Tin Pan Alley to Music Hall and Opera. They turned quiet civic occasions into rousing events. Band music was everywhere. This was the Era of the Small-Town Band.

What made the phenomenon work were the small town audiences. Isolated as they were by slow travel and sparse communication, the small town audience paid rapt attention and chauvinistic tribute to the musicians' every effort.

But as other forms of entertainment came into being, the Small Town Band episode dwindled and finally all but disappeared until 1972 when Dave Fulmer found a faded photograph of the Band, posing in front of Lynchburg's White Rabbit Saloon. The photograph intrigued Fulmer and so he began his research into the roots of the Small Town Band and in particular the Original Silver Cornet Band.

I asked Dave how he approached regenerating this silver cornet history. "To recreate Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band some eighty years later meant importing some horns from France, hand-making others to order and even scrounging through the attics of antique collectors. It took almost 15 months!"

So why did he do it? "There's nothing like it around today," he proclaimed. "Getting the Original Silver Cornet Band together and working on its repertoire is a project that allows me a real living glimpse of America's past. The fact that it also happens to be fun is an additional bonus!"

Dave Fulmer has led a distinguished and fruitful musical career himself. Heralding from Berkeley, California, his musical education began at the age of five on piano and later trombone and in 1950 he joined NBC San Francisco as a Producer and Director, winning two Emmys for musical productions. In 1954, he was hired as TV Creative Director by an ad agency and spent thirteen years writing, producing, and directing TV and radio adverts for the likes of Best Foods and Cadbury's Biscuits.

Since starting the research in 1972 that led to the recreation of the Jack Daniel's Band, Dave Fulmer has become something of an authority on small town life and culture at the turn of the century. He has written and produced 11 films about Lynchburg, small town life, and Tennessee Whiskey-making for the Jack Daniel Distillery. "That was the age of innocence and the age of confidence," he told me. "There was a gentleness, a quietness, an optimism to that period which has not and will not come again. I found it very appealing."

Working with a grant from the Jack Daniel Distillery, Dave enlisted the help of his long-time friend and colleague, composer and arranger Greig McRitchie. "The late Greig McRitchie contributed some two hundred compositions and arrangements to the Band," Dave Fulmer explained. "I worked closely with him and it was he who established our unique sonorous sound. His arranging skill was phenomenal."

Indeed, Greig McRitchie has a list of accolades to his name which is astounding to say the least. Originally a trumpeter, Greig went on to orchestrate well over a hundred major motion pictures for such directors as Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner. Some of the films enriched by his orchestrations are The Colour Purple, Star Trek III and The Hunt for Red October. His scores have been nominated six times for Oscars and Dances with Wolves won the top award.

Together, Dave and Greig produced the first album, the first concert and the first TV feature. Suddenly, Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band became a dimensional, viable attraction. With Fulmer out front speaking as 'the perfessor' (professor with a southern American dialect!), the band took to the road in 1978, and has played in all the contiguous 48 states; from Lincoln Centre to Disneyland, from Lynchburg Square to the White House and from the Today Show to National Public Radio.

Today, after several national tours, the appeal is as strong as ever, with audiences of every age, charmed by this friendly bunch of costumed characters from 1905. The Band performs at up to 10 concerts per month. I quizzed Bernie Walker, one of the Band's Creative Staff about the concert format. "Our concerts are typically 2 hours in length and feature a full-size gazebo set," he told me. "The music consists of light classical, Americana, Dixieland style jazz and more traditional sounding marches and waltzes. We do perform shorter shows for various engagements and festivals and occasionally we are asked to give master classes or clinics to student and community groups."

The Band's discography is extensive with recordings from the 80's through to their latest release; 'Ev'ry time I feel the Spirit' recorded in 2003, comprising hymns and spirituals from their Sunday set. They have a Hoagy Carmichael collection, a Christmas album and 'In Concert'; a live recording containing one of my favourite tracks, 'How to Build a Band'. This piece is quintessential of the Band's jovial style of music, illustrating perfectly the monumental originality and arranging expertise of it's repertoire. 'How to Build a Band' is a clever development, introducing each of the instruments in turn with cunning rhyming phrase from 'the perfessor' out front. Regardless of the light hearted and charming music, the playing is of the highest standard; a thrilling mix of energy and lyricism in a showcase of brass talent.

The arrangements are simply unique and compliment perfectly the texture of the group whose instrumentation includes cornets, alto, tenor and baritone horns (equivalent of tenor horn, baritone and euphonium with the latter two parts written in bass clef), trombone, tuba (also bass clef), banjo, drum kit and xylophone.

The Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band is a distinct initiative which aims to entertain it's audiences. The arrangements are ingenious and it is understandable why the Band is so popular. Innovative music and an original band with talent both around the stands and at the helm. Maybe they should add to that poster, 'when the Band play, we enjoy'!