History of the CDA Big Band

CDA Press article - December 28, 2019

by Jennifer Passaro, staff writer

Ron Farnsworth tipped his alto sax for the first sweet notes. It’s not a coincidence the Coeur d’Alene Big Band leader began the swing band’s rehearsal with Begin the Beguine, a song written in the 1930s by Cole Porter to reminisce the slow rhumba dance filling the Caribbean while the rest of the world sat on the cusp of another war.

“We’re a dance band,” Farnsworth said. “We give the dancers energy and they give us energy until we’re all in a lather. We’re all smiling.”

His wife, Sandi Farnsworth, chuckled. Sandi drums for the 18-member-band.

“As the drummer I have to keep things going,” Sandi said. “There’s a lot of push and pull with that many people. There are so many voices coming together - the voices of the instruments.”

Those voices will come together again New Year’s Eve at the Eagle’s Lodge, 209 E. Sherman Ave., to play for a packed dance floor. The Coeur d’Alene Big Band will play 6-9 p.m. followed by Royale from 9 p.m. - 1 a.m. Tickets for each band are $25 or $45 for the whole night and can be purchased in advance at the Eagle's Lounge or at the door. 

Tenor saxophonist Kriss Mitchell has been playing big band music for 58 years.

“It’s a language all its own and when you play it, nobody can stand still and everybody has some kind of memory attached to the songs,” Mitchell said. “It makes you feel good, it’s fun to play and to hear and it’s written in a way that brings musicians together. When you play it, you play together as every part is important. It’s not about just one soloist — it’s about the group.”

Farnsworth jumped the band into the “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” The four trombones croaked their bullfrog mouths, hugging the song’s deep notes.

“The magic is the music,” trombone player Bill Moore said. “It’s just endorphins. Flow. I’ve been playing for 62 years. It’s just a feel good. It’s the camaraderie. There isn’t a single person here that I wouldn’t invite into my home.”

Musicians with an appetite for swing keep a certain amount of swagger in each measure. They launched into Charmaine. Even in common time, the room sensed the song’s old wallowing waltz time.

“That sounded OK,” a trumpet player piped up from the far side of English Funeral Home, where the band practices on Thursday nights and threatens to bring the deceased to their dancing feet. Bruce English, a longtime band member, opened the space for the band to rehearse. The residents don’t seem to mind if someone’s playing off key or the trumpets get a little too loud.

“It sounded like a car wreck,” one of the trombone players gruffed.

“Oh it’s just modulating,” piano player LeeAnn Moore said. “It’s a little funny, but it’s right.”

She’s been playing the piano for 65 years.

“Swing music makes me want to dance,” LeeAnn said. “So I’m dancing with the piano when we play.”

“The flamboyant pianist,” Moore said with a grin, spreading his arm toward LeeAnn. “And my wife.”

“The music brought us together,” LeeAnn said, her voice bright like the keys on her piano.

Ruth Pratt has been the Coeur d’Alene Big Band vocalist for 16 years.

“I’ve grown up in this band,” Pratt said. “I can be dragging and I come in here and everything gets better. You rely on each other. Nobody sounds good unless everybody sounds good.”

“This band is a community service thing,” trombone player Stan Schedler said. “It’s all unpaid. We go out to the schools. We’re interested in passing this on to the younger folks.”

Most of the band members picked up their first instruments in elementary school. Many of them played together at Coeur d’Alene High School.

Jon Harwood, Bruce English and Denny Burt, who owns Burt’s Music and Sound in Coeur d’Alene, kept playing together in the basement of the Eagle’s Lodge after high school.

“We were the Moonlighters,” Harwood said. “Then we were the Sounds of Music.”

The Sounds of Music merged with the Elks Club Dance Band to form Coeur d’Alene Big Band. The Elks Dance Band evolved from the nearly 50-year-old Elk’s Club Marching Band in the 1950s, playing music at Elks lodges throughout the Inland Northwest.

English and Schedler were two of the original members of the Elks Dance Band.

“My dad would take me to the Thursday night rehearsals at the Elks Club and I would have a lesson before each band practice started,” Schedler said. “After the lesson my Dad and I would stay and listen to the first half hour or so of the rehearsal.”

Coeur d’Alene Big Band debuted at the Coeur d’Alene Cultural Center in February 1999 to a packed house. The band currently plays Sunday Tea Dances on the third Sunday of the month, 3-8 p.m. in the Eagle’s Lounge, October to May.

Farnsworth announced the next song and Sandi leapt up.

“Sorry, I can’t play without my cowbell,” Sandi said.

The room filled with chatter. It was the day after Christmas.

“You know,” Moore said, leaning toward Shedler. “I like my kale with a silent ‘k’.”

Eric Haakenson overheard and chuckled, swinging his bass. Haakenson’s father, Bob, plays trumpet in the band and his son Karl used to play trombone.

Farnsworth launched the band into La Rubia, Sandi keeping cowbell time.

“My husband started in the band first, then I joined,” Sandi said. “My husband and I don’t do anything without the other.”

“It feels like family and joy and teamwork all wrapped up in an amazing group of people who come together once a week for the relationships with each other and the great love of music,” Mitchell said. “I am so humbled to be able to play with all of them. The amount of talent and musicianship in this group is beyond words.”