The Dashiki

The Dashiki

starring

Dave Dekoff  as the MU3
Tex Waldron as the Bandmaster
and featuring
Frank Mullen as the Innocent Bystander

Scene: Reception area, Navy Band Newport
Time: A workday morning in 1982.

As the curtain rises, Chief Warrant Officer Waldron and MU1 Mullen are standing by the admin desk. CWO Waldron holds a sheaf of paperwork. The two are discussing the papers as MU3 Dekoff enters. wearing colorful, flowing robes that swirl with his every step.

---

CWO Waldron: What the--

MU3 Dekoff:  Good morning, boss. Good morning, Frank.

CWO Waldron: Dekoff, have you been walking around the base dressed like that?

MU3 Dekoff: Sure.

CWO: Where people can see you?

MU3 Dekoff: Yeah.

CWO Waldron: What is it?

MU3 Dekoff: It's a dashiki.

CWO Waldron: What the hell is a dashiki?

MU3 Dekoff: It's an African garment, popular in the western and sub-Saharan regions, worn on formal or everyday occasions. This is the informal version, because of its color and design.

 CWO Waldron: This is the Navy and that's a dress!

2019 NMA Reunion Wrap-up: Final Edition

As we resume our lives at home, we'll think occasionally about the 2019 reunion, the old friends we shared the week with, the new friendships we forged, the music we played.

For me, reunion memories never totally disappear. I spend six months thinking about the last reunion and when Christmas is over, I start looking forward to June again. If you've been to a reunion you understand; if you haven't, well, all I can say is: Come to a reunion, and, pal, you'll understand.

As time goes by, I'll edit and post recordings of our 2019 performances, rehearsals and a visit from Navy Band Great Lakes. Until then, I leave you with this:

We're musical professionals and part-timers. We're on active duty or we took off our dress blues decades ago. We perform for a living or just for the fun of being in a municipal band. We play every day or dust off the horn case once a year.

But when you put us together on the bandstand, we play like we pulled into a foreign port this morning, performed an afternoon concert in a packed town square and now we're at the embassy ball, halfway through the third set, arguing under our breaths about who's gonna drive the bus to colors tomorrow morning. 

We used to call it "work." Now, it's something we voluntarily fly halfway across the country to do every June.

And here's a little bit of it:

2019 NMA Reunion Wrap-up #2: Big Band

The Friday Nite Saxes: Jim Hayward, John Polites,
Ray Ascione, John Clemmer and Dennis Bear.

Friday night is a musical blowout at an NMA reunion. Our concert band's performance opens the evening, we break to enjoy the buffet and then our dance band finishes the evening.

I count 3 generations of MUs in the
trumpet section. Your count may vary.

Triple threat, pianist Tom Wholley anchored rhythm
sections in the lounge, concert band and dance band.

2019 NMA Reunion Wrap-up #1: Lounging Around

David and Willean Blakeley join Sherry Church in the lounge
 for a few moments of temperate, responsible behavior.

Big band, concert band music, straight-ahead jazz and even some Dixieland. This year's NMA reunion had it all.

Party animals Rick Jebavy, Deb Holl, Dennis 
Allard, Leon Harris and John Polites.

But the music is only part of a reunion. We gather together, old friends and new friends, telling old stories and sharing the news of the last year.

 Woodwind doublers Dennis Bear and Ray Ascione recuperate 
from an afternoon spent juggling clarinets and saxophones.

We find the lounge a convenient spot for such socializing. This has certainly be true for me. My bandmasters always knew: If you can't find Frank Mullen in his office, go look in the bar lounge.

The Old Vet in the Audience

He sat in his lawn chair in his Navy unit cap and applauded respectfully. He saluted when you played the National Anthem and stood proudly when you played Anchors Aweigh. And when the concert was over, that ancient Navy veteran hobbled up to the bandstand and pestered you:

"Did you know Bill Deckler/Jack Portsworth/Ed Hallerman?"
"When did the Navy do away with/bring back crackerjacks?"
"Do they still have a band in Boston/San Francisco/Charleston?"

You needed to change back into civvies, tear down the gear, load the truck and take off. But you put up with the old guy's meandering, trying not to let him see how often you were checking your watch.

This week, at Navy Band Great Lakes' Navy Week performances in Rock Island, I asked my wife to take a few pictures. I've just perused her photos and learned something shocking:

That old Navy vet is me.

Left: Chief Tommy "One More Hill to Climb" Horner
Right: Lieutenant Patrick  Hill
Center: Over the Hill Frank Mullen

I don't know how this happened. Maybe I'm in the Twilight Zone. All I know is, I sat enthralled by the sounds of our Navy's finest and, when the show was over, there I was, harassing the band's members and leaders with those same Geriatric Questions of Old.

One difference, though: all the MUs I met--before the show, after the show, in and out of uniform, from the oboe player, to the CPOs, to the bandmaster himself--were unfailingly interested and engaged. They made me feel like a young sailor shooting the breeze with his shipmates.

Well, except for the part where the chief and the lieutenant had to help me up out of my chair.

Lucky me; I get another reunion..

This year, we extended our NMA reunion by starting on Tuesday, rather than the usual Wednesday.

This year, we liked the extended reunion.

This year, Frank Mullen gets an extended, extended reunion.

Once again, it's Navy Week in the Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities. Navy Band Great Lakes will be here all week, because this Illinois/Iowa location falls in their area of responsibility.

2015 Navy Week performance by Navy Band Great Lakes.

And I'll be here all week, because I live here. And, because listening to Navy bands fall in my area of enjoyment.

The ceremonial unit from Great Lakes knocked us out on Saturday night. This week will feature performances by the entire concert band, the brass group and the jazz and rock bands.

It'll be like another NMA reunion, only with more crackerjacks and fewer Hawaiian shirts..