History: Baum's Big Band
Posted: Friday, August 3, 2012 By Paul Milan, Historical Society - for the Beacon
During the summer of 1950, a gentleman driving an extended army passenger car drove up to my home and introduced himself as Marty Baum, the new band director for Grants High School. He informed me that the Fourth of July parade was in two weeks, and he wanted to organize the band for the parade and set up practice. Miraculously we marched for the parade and also played for the rodeo.
I was very lucky that I had teachers that gave me the incentive to do the best of my ability, however; Marty Baum had the greatest influence.
The man was a musical genius, winning his first award as the best twelve-year-old baritone player in the USA; he also played the trombone, trumpet, piano, and guitar. He was born in Illinois, and graduated from UNM, Albuquerque. While a student, he was the band director of Las Cruces High School until they found a director.
At UNM, he was the student band conductor, a member of the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, and had a dance band, “Baum’s Big Band.” He joined the U.S. Navy, was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and played in the Navy Band.
Marty remembered, “We played every day and twice on Sunday. My lips were so strong that when they hired me to play at a circus, I would challenge the other trumpet players to a duel causing their lips to bleed.”
Baum’s Big Band was the biggest and most popular band in New Mexico. But when he started to have children nightlife interfered with family life and he went into teaching.
That first summer in Grants was dedicated to meeting everyone in town and getting the band students to practice. We were a rag-tag group, no uniforms, and the better musicians had graduated. Therefore he started from scratch.
We played for every event in town. He organized us into a marching band, a concert band, a pep band, a dance band, an orchestra, a chorus, a German Hungry Five Group, and we played with the VFW Drum and Bugle Corps.
The first year we played at the state fair and the Christmas Parade in Albuquerque. Since we did not have uniforms, Marty had the mothers make Santa Claus costumes. We were the worst band in the parade, but the only ones praised and photographed by the newspaper. The Gallup High School Band was sharp. We played at a football game, which was our first night game. Marty borrowed lights from UNM, and we got a standing ovation with our lights’ display.
Marty’s participation with the town folks paid off. The Lions Club had raised $3,000 for uniforms by the fall of 1951. We played for many of the club’s meetings plus every political rally in town.
Marty organized musicals and concerts and toured all of the grade schools in the district and recruited sixth graders to take music classes.
In Las Cruces Marty became fascinated with “Mariachi” music and he had begun playing in Juarez, Mexico, on weekends.
He said, “Mexican trumpet players in dives are better than Harry James, who is considered the world’s best.”
I heard that he sometimes played at McBride’s Sunshine Dance Hall featuring Mexican music; the fee was a dime a dance per couple. When we went to VFW Conventions with the Drum and Bugle Corps, he would play Mexican music with the bugle to the delight of the crowd.
Marty would rearrange difficult music to meet our skills. While many of the bands would play marches, he would arrange mambos and contemporary music for us.
Our pep-band played at a Belen basketball game and, while their snappy band played difficult marches, Marty arranged fun music like “The Thing” and “She’s Too Fat for me”, with a singer, wowing the crowd.
Marty did everything possible to encourage us to play better. He entered us in band contests. We sat with the UNM band at their football games, and he took us to listen to the U.S. Marine Band. Marty sent us to special music workshops and entered us in the All State band competition. For the first time Grants High School had three of us qualify for the All State Band and Chorus.
And he got us band scholarships.
Marty was in Grants two or three years more, by then the band was as good as any in the state. The he moved to California. While he was the Atascadero High School music director, he was asked to present the half-time show for the Los Angeles Rams, which led to performing at the 1967 Super bowl.
Marty was the first California Band Directors Association president and he became the Cal-Poly music director. In 1974 Marty was the Morgan Hill School District music director, where he received the Teacher of Year award. Marty became the Grand Marshal of the 1985 Morgan Hill Fourth of July Parade.
In 1999, Marty Baum was awarded the California Band Directors Association’s Distinguished Service Award. After retirement, he joined his brother and three sons playing the trombone and piano at events throughout the Western states.
As a coincidence, I had some classmates at Mexico City College that had been Marty’s students. They had the same experiences as mine; one was a tough ex-Marine and said, “Being in Marty’s Band was an honor, his band was like an athletic sport, nobody dared call you a Band ‘Weinie’.” Marty’s philosophy was that you work hard, do the best you can, and don’t fear mistakes. The only people that don’t make mistakes are people that don’t do anything.
I read a poem in a Hispanic magazine that described growing up in Albuquerque in the late forties that ended, “Cuando bailamos con la musica de Marty Baum en la Sala de Barelas. (When we danced to the music of Marty Baum at the Barelas Dance Hall)."
Editor’s Note: Paul Milan contributes to the Beacon’s history column and is a longtime resident of Cibola County. Milan’s father, Salvador Milan, was the Village of Milan’s first mayor.
I was very lucky that I had teachers that gave me the incentive to do the best of my ability, however; Marty Baum had the greatest influence.
The man was a musical genius, winning his first award as the best twelve-year-old baritone player in the USA; he also played the trombone, trumpet, piano, and guitar. He was born in Illinois, and graduated from UNM, Albuquerque. While a student, he was the band director of Las Cruces High School until they found a director.
At UNM, he was the student band conductor, a member of the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, and had a dance band, “Baum’s Big Band.” He joined the U.S. Navy, was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and played in the Navy Band.
Marty remembered, “We played every day and twice on Sunday. My lips were so strong that when they hired me to play at a circus, I would challenge the other trumpet players to a duel causing their lips to bleed.”
Baum’s Big Band was the biggest and most popular band in New Mexico. But when he started to have children nightlife interfered with family life and he went into teaching.
That first summer in Grants was dedicated to meeting everyone in town and getting the band students to practice. We were a rag-tag group, no uniforms, and the better musicians had graduated. Therefore he started from scratch.
We played for every event in town. He organized us into a marching band, a concert band, a pep band, a dance band, an orchestra, a chorus, a German Hungry Five Group, and we played with the VFW Drum and Bugle Corps.
The first year we played at the state fair and the Christmas Parade in Albuquerque. Since we did not have uniforms, Marty had the mothers make Santa Claus costumes. We were the worst band in the parade, but the only ones praised and photographed by the newspaper. The Gallup High School Band was sharp. We played at a football game, which was our first night game. Marty borrowed lights from UNM, and we got a standing ovation with our lights’ display.
Marty’s participation with the town folks paid off. The Lions Club had raised $3,000 for uniforms by the fall of 1951. We played for many of the club’s meetings plus every political rally in town.
Marty organized musicals and concerts and toured all of the grade schools in the district and recruited sixth graders to take music classes.
In Las Cruces Marty became fascinated with “Mariachi” music and he had begun playing in Juarez, Mexico, on weekends.
He said, “Mexican trumpet players in dives are better than Harry James, who is considered the world’s best.”
I heard that he sometimes played at McBride’s Sunshine Dance Hall featuring Mexican music; the fee was a dime a dance per couple. When we went to VFW Conventions with the Drum and Bugle Corps, he would play Mexican music with the bugle to the delight of the crowd.
Marty would rearrange difficult music to meet our skills. While many of the bands would play marches, he would arrange mambos and contemporary music for us.
Our pep-band played at a Belen basketball game and, while their snappy band played difficult marches, Marty arranged fun music like “The Thing” and “She’s Too Fat for me”, with a singer, wowing the crowd.
Marty did everything possible to encourage us to play better. He entered us in band contests. We sat with the UNM band at their football games, and he took us to listen to the U.S. Marine Band. Marty sent us to special music workshops and entered us in the All State band competition. For the first time Grants High School had three of us qualify for the All State Band and Chorus.
And he got us band scholarships.
Marty was in Grants two or three years more, by then the band was as good as any in the state. The he moved to California. While he was the Atascadero High School music director, he was asked to present the half-time show for the Los Angeles Rams, which led to performing at the 1967 Super bowl.
Marty was the first California Band Directors Association president and he became the Cal-Poly music director. In 1974 Marty was the Morgan Hill School District music director, where he received the Teacher of Year award. Marty became the Grand Marshal of the 1985 Morgan Hill Fourth of July Parade.
In 1999, Marty Baum was awarded the California Band Directors Association’s Distinguished Service Award. After retirement, he joined his brother and three sons playing the trombone and piano at events throughout the Western states.
As a coincidence, I had some classmates at Mexico City College that had been Marty’s students. They had the same experiences as mine; one was a tough ex-Marine and said, “Being in Marty’s Band was an honor, his band was like an athletic sport, nobody dared call you a Band ‘Weinie’.” Marty’s philosophy was that you work hard, do the best you can, and don’t fear mistakes. The only people that don’t make mistakes are people that don’t do anything.
I read a poem in a Hispanic magazine that described growing up in Albuquerque in the late forties that ended, “Cuando bailamos con la musica de Marty Baum en la Sala de Barelas. (When we danced to the music of Marty Baum at the Barelas Dance Hall)."
Editor’s Note: Paul Milan contributes to the Beacon’s history column and is a longtime resident of Cibola County. Milan’s father, Salvador Milan, was the Village of Milan’s first mayor.