Tuesday July 16 @ 2pm
Coos History Museum. Coos Bay

Local historian Steve Greif partners with Jill Hayner-Thompson to provide photos and memorabilia from the history of bands and orchestras that played in the region. Musicians Wilbur Jensen and Aaron Johnson share stories, photos and play a few tunes for the audience.

The Coos Bay area had multiple bands over the years, some only brass and others with woodwinds. Learn about this history, the changes and the players that influenced live music performances. Hear highlights of some of the impressive local talents that interacted with internationally recognized groups that came through the region. For example, between 1949 and 1955, Louis Armstrong and the Allstars, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet, Skinny Ennis and many others visited the Coquille community center. Wilbur (as well as his sister Judy) were able to attend these concerts, and sit in with the bands. Louis Armstrong was even quoted in Downbeat magazine (the most famous jazz magazine in history) months after the 1951 Coquille concert, praising “a little white trumpeter way out in the Oregon back country.”