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Photograph by Chad Pilster
Nothing to Fret Over: Tenor banjo master Charlie Tagawa has been musical director of the Peninsula Banjo Band since 1965.
Making music and money for charity
L'Daisy Patch plays host to the volunteer Peninsula Banjo Band
By Kara Chalmers
On a recent Tuesday, about 20 members of the Peninsula Banjo Band, clad in red vests, white shirts and black pants, sat down at their music stands at the Straw Hat Pizza on the corner of Hamilton and Meridian in San Jose. As the band got rolling with such songs as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "What a Wonderful World," audience members clapped, sang along and danced, their pizza and beer practically bouncing on the tables.
The crowd was made up of proud grandchildren, husbands and wives of players, banjo lovers and friends. There was Betty in the front row as always, a woman who dances so enthusiastically every week that she ends up soaked with perspiration. There was the group that "owns" the booth in the back, devoted fans who sell the band's two albums.
"We have a very active auxiliary of spouses and relatives, and also others who have just attached themselves to the band," says Floyd Oatman, 71, the band's president. "We have groupies. We get about 55 people a night, about all this place can hold, and half come almost every time."
Today, up to 50 banjoists are signed on as members of the volunteer Peninsula Banjo Band crew, and they range in age from 30 to 92. Many are retired or semi-retired, according to Oatman.
The band is made up of women and men, plectrum and tenor banjoists and wash-tub bass players. Some play with sheet music and some without, and at least one has a curlicue mustache. But one thing they have in common is a passion for banjo playing. The volunteers play solely for the enjoyment of their listeners and do not get paid for performing, Oatman says.
Joan Goldstein, 49, a relatively new member, has been playing with the band for three years, after starting lessons with musical director and tenor banjo master Charlie Tagawa six years ago.
"For some reason, we attract a really nice group of people," she says. "Maybe it's because we donate so much to charity, but you really can't find a nicer group."
Goldstein says what she enjoys most are the band's performances at convalescent homes.
"Even if it's just for one day, or one hour, I feel when we go and play, the people there really enjoy it and look forward to it," she says. "Their faces just light up."
The band was formed in 1963 as the Cupertino Banjo Band, and was then made up of only seven members. The story goes that for its first performance ever, the group could not figure out how to split the $25 payment seven ways, so bandmembers decided it was easier to just donate the funds to charity. One of the first beneficiaries was a relative of a band member, a young patient at Children's Hospital at Stanford.
"From there, it just kept on snowballing," Oatman says.
While the band does charge for most of performances, all proceeds are donated to cancer research, primarily for children.
Since the 1970s, the Peninsula Banjo Band has donated more than $159,000 to places such as Packard Children's Hospital, the Ronald McDonald House and Hospice of the Valley.
The band also donates to places close to its heart, like the San Jose Rotary Foundation, in remembrance of a longtime member and his wife.
Tagawa, 63, whose son is also in the band, conducts, sings along and sometimes plays with the band. Tagawa started taking lessons in Japan when he was 21 and began directing the Peninsula Banjo Band in 1965.
"When I started the banjo, nobody played," he says. "Banjo was a vanishing instrument. I believed I should preserve it. It's a beautiful sound."
The band has grown and now attracts members from all over the Peninsula--and even has honorary members from Kobe, Japan, who come to the Bay Area's annual Banjo Jubilee, now in its 27th year.
Tagawa and the other band members are dedicated to preserving this type of music. The band is always looking for new members, and offers scholarships to people who want to study the banjo and the wash-tub bass. This year, one lucky student will get a free banjo--an instrument that was owned by a bandmember who recently passed away.
The band performs at 60 to 70 weddings, funerals, public festivals or private celebrations a year. It performed at the Golden Gate Bridge's anniversary celebration in 1987 and at the opening of Highway 85. It also played at two separate fundraisers for both President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
"It was hard to get them to go to those," says band president Oatman. "There are not that many Democrats in the band. They groused, but then they went."
The banjoists also have a staunch fan in Glenite Laura Augusta, owner of L' Daisy Patch. Augusta has engaged the band to play at an ice cream social at her shop on July 24. The function is intended to increase knowledge of the Peninsula Banjo Band and to introduce the public to L' Daisy Patch's new garden, Le Jardin. With a 75-year-old hydrangea in full bloom as its centerpiece, Le Jardin has flowers, statues, fountains and benches for weary patrons.
"The ice cream social is my way of thanking my new customers," Augusta says. "Come see the garden, come see the band, and have fun."
The Peninsula Banjo Band performs at Le Jardin on July 24 from 2-4 p.m. The ice cream social begins at 10 a.m. and lasts all day. Ice cream cones and cups will be free and the social is open to the public. L' Daisy Patch is located at 1393 Lincoln Avenue .
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
