The St. Charles Big (Jazz) Band Offers Something For Every Musical Taste

The St. Charles Big (Jazz) Band will have something in its repertoire for every taste when it performs a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the pavilion in .

"We’re going to do a little bit of everything," said band director Earl Kreder, who also plays alto saxophone. "We’re going to do some swing music from the ‘30s and ‘40s, we’re going to play a little contemporary jazz, we’re going to do a few ballads."

The 18-member group includes five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, plus piano, bass, guitar, vibraphone and a vocalist. The jazz band was organized in 1999 as an offshoot of the St. Charles Municipal Band, which has a long, rich history dating to the St. Charles Brass Band in 1870.

"We had a lot of municipal band members who had played in big bands or jazz bands, and we just thought it was a natural to form our own jazz band and play concerts and dances," Kreder said. "Everybody likes to play that kind of music."

The performance will include several songs arranged by the late Rich Wargin, who played with the band and arranged about 125 songs for the group throughout a 10-year span.

"He played hot trumpet for us—hot trumpet solos," Kreder said. "He was a professional musician out of St. Louis, had his own band for many, many years. He moved out to St. Charles, and he just sat in one night when we were having a rehearsal. We said, ‘Man, this guy is good.’ So he started playing with us and started arranging with us."

The vocalist for this concert will be Jinny Herr.

"She’s quite popular around the St. Louis area," Kreder said. "She’s been singing for many, many years, both in the St. Louis area and the St. Charles area."

The group will play 13 to 14 songs in the span of an hour or so. Among the highlights are the Glenn Miller tune "String of Pearls," American Bandstand theme song "Bandstand Boogie," the Harry James and Duke Ellington song "Beginning to See the Light," "Witchcraft" and "This is All I Ask," both popularized by Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Latin-flavored "Wave," and the evergreen ballad "A Nightingale Sang In Barclay Square."

The jazz band has been playing Sunday night concerts in the park since 1999.

"I think everybody comes out and certainly enjoys the music," Kreder said.

Including the band.

"The musicians, No. 1, really enjoy playing the big band music—the jazz," he said. "That’s what keeps them coming back to rehearsals and playing."

Being able to share that fun with listeners is even better.

"Playing in front of a live audience—that’s the best you can do," Kreder said, chuckling. "You get feedback. A lot of people out there know the musicians and come up afterwards to say hi. It’s just a great interaction that we see with the audience. And many of these audience members have been coming to concerts for 10, 15, 20 years. It’s just great to be playing for a live audience."

Listeners bring lawn chairs or blankets, and some of them picnic.

"They’ve got a little hill they goes up, maybe, 10 feet above the rest of the park," Kreder said. "It’s kind of a berm. We’ll have people sitting up there in lawn chairs or on blankets, eating. From there you can see the river flowing by. It’s just a perfect spot for a picnic."

The St. Charles Big (Jazz) Band plays additional civic and private events to fund the free summer concerts in the park. For information about booking the band, contact Earl Kreder.

Hear the band play by clicking on the video links.