The New Custer Brass Band

Keyed buglist Stephen K. Charpie tackles projects with gusto. Danville audiences know him from days when he worked with Gold Rush and played the music popular during Gold Rush era. His latest absorption is with a brass band that accompanied General George Armstrong Custer and the famed 7th Cavalry. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the death of Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

"It's one more time that I'm going to bring something new to Kentucky," said Charpie, who is a free-lance musician in the Los Angeles area.

The eight-member New Custer Brass Band formed this year just for the purpose of making a CD of this unusual music. Members are all professional musicians in the Los Angeles area.

"Most bands form and do a CD later, we did a CD first," said Charpie, who will be discussing the music at Thursday's Chautauqua Tea. He plays trumpet, gives keyed bugle concerts and recitals, and plays as an extra with the Louisville Orchestra.

The band was led by Italian-American bandmaster Felix Vinatieri. Charpie will perform on an E-flat cornet that Vinatieri played.

The band did not accompany Custer to his final battle. It was held back by another general. "They would have all been killed," Charpie said.

Vinatieri settled in South Dakota and still has family members there. There is a museum there with his work. Charpie learned about Vinatieri and the band after reading a small item in museum newsletter that noted the museum had archives of Custer band's music.

"Once I read that, I was in South Dakota three days later."

That was three years ago. The New Custer Brass Band will premiere in Yankton, S.D., just days before the GABBF. After the two performances, it's back to the museum for Vinatieri's cornet.

Now Charpie has succeeded in his mission, and is sharing it with Danville when he makes his eighth trip to festival. Who knows what he'll have in store when he appears in the future.