I hope you all enjoyed the September meeting. And what a meeting it was. One of our hometown bands, Creole Jazz Kings, kept our toes tapping all afternoon. Dan was kind enough to play Ory’s Creole Trombone for my father who was celebrating his birthday that day. I’m not telling you how old Dad is. You can ask him yourself.

That was my nephew, Jacob, dancing with Natalie. Apparently the conversation went something like this…..”I don’t know how to do this.” “That’s ok, I don’t know either.” Ah youth, when we weren’t afraid to get up and do something unfamiliar and didn’t worry if we looked dorky while doing it. Not that Jacob and Natalie looked dorky! I thought it was cool.

How about Tom Castles? He doesn’t just sing; he throws his entire body and soul into the tune. Thanks Tom for sharing your birthday with us. I think we got the best present.

About October’s band…Pirate’s Cove. Let’s see, what can I tell you about them? I know you’ve never heard of them. But several of our jazz society members play in this band. If you like swing, you’ll be very happy on Sunday. It’ll be nothing but swing all afternoon.

Another event will be going on during our meeting time on Sunday.

Buck Townsend’s memorial service will be that afternoon. Some of us who are playing for the jazz society were also asked to play for his service. Unfortunately, as much as we would like, we can’t be in two places at once. I would like to take a moment and thank Buck for his contributions to the Arts in Modesto. If you aren’t familiar with him, Buck was the founder of TOP (Townsend Opera Players), a local opera company that has been performing for audiences in Modesto for many years. RIP Buck and Bravo!

— Margaret Squires, Music Director