New parking leaves private lots empty

Sept. 25, 2006
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon @ fredericknewspost . com

FREDERICK — When computer programmers, dentists and music teachers got together six years ago, the goal was to put together an affordable, performance-quality big jazz band.

Beyond an appreciation for music, the group wanted to help keep the big band and swing dancing experience alive in Frederick.

"You might see them in everyday life in Frederick," said David Lee, manager of the band. "But when they get together, it's all about the music."

The band is called the Star Spangled Big Band, which is suggestive of the national anthem and pays tribute to Francis Scott Key.

The 20-member band is directed by Dan Sisco.

To celebrate their sixth birthday, the band will perform Sunday afternoon at Brewer's Alley on Market Street.

Guests will enjoy the pub's mix of industrial and historic decor, while the band plays numbers such as "Starlight Serenade" and "Pennsylvania 6-5000".

Tony Constable, a long-time Frederick resident from England, founded the band partly to recreate the atmosphere he encountered as a late teenager playing with a rehearsal-only big jazz band on Sunday afternoons in the 1950s.

The group started playing out of the old Bentz Street Raw Bar, rehearsing Sundays and playing one Thursday night a month.

Now the band plays upstairs at Brewer's Alley most Sundays.

Band members have played across Frederick County, including at Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown twice a year.

"We often see the same people year after year," Mr. Lee said at the Koi and Wine Festival three weeks ago. "They come for the wine and the gardens, but also for the music."