The Dixie Kings
What do you get when you mix talented musicians from New Columbian and Rhythm and Brass? A swinging group known as The Dixie Kings.
New Columbian members Vince DiMartino and George Foreman formed this group in lieu of a fall tour for the New Columbian Brass Band. They did a weeklong, five-state tour.
New Columbian member John Jenkins of Silver Springs, Md., is the group's clarinet player. He's a retired member of the U.S. Marine Band.
He explains that a standard Dixieland band is clarinet, trumpet and trombone on the front line, and the rhythm section is piano, banjo, tuba and drums. This group does not have a pianist.
Dixieland music is a combination of marching bands, the culture being very military around turn of century, and gospel and blues from workers in the Southern fields. The two kinds of music met each other in New Orleans. Band leaders such as Louie Armstrong popularized it. It traveled up to Chicago and went east to New York. By the 1950s, the style of music had given way to be-bop.
Dixie King members include DiMartino on trumpet; David Henderson of Lexington on trombone; Marty Erickson of East Lansing, Mich., and a New Columbian member, on tuba; Tim Lake of Lexington on banjo; and David Gluck, a Rhythm and Brass member, as drummer. Erickson, who teaches at Penn State, formerly was tuba soloist with the Navy band.
