Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we give our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)
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Shane Endsley can feel the weight of the Denver Municipal Band’s history, and that only motivates him to carry it higher.
The son of former DMB director Gerald Endsley, who led the band from the mid-1990s through his death in 2015, the younger Endsley is a nationally touring trumpet player and director of education and outreach for the band. Along with current DMB director and conductor Joe Martin, Endsley is still pushing forward an elastic, accomplished group that’s playing more than 20 free shows this year in addition to school visits and other performances.
That includes a free, Sunday, June 28, show at City Park Jazz at 6 p.m., another nonprofit that itself is celebrating 40 years. Amid that, Endsley remains one of those rare music lifers that offers a link to the past while pushing the next generation of musicians forward. And he’s a dad himself.
“They are musicians, too,” he said of his son, 17, and daughter, 20. “They’re really good, but it’s not their focus. They didn’t zero in on it like I did when I was a kid.”
Endsley, like his father, began playing music before he turned 10 and was performing on stage by his teens. He made his bow with DMB at age 17, and has since toured and recorded widely, including with Grammy-winning names such as Ani DiFranco and Jason Mraz. The 51-year-old is also a lecturer in Metropolitan State University’s Jazz program and coordinator of the school’s innovative studio and performance space at 800 Kalamath St. in Denver.
In other words, a busy dude. Did we mention his wife’s also a professional musician?
Along with the decades he’s put into his craft, he’s always encouraging new recruits.
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“If you’re willing to take time and work at it, it feels attainable for everybody,” he said. “Don’t get too discouraged by somebody who’s rocketing ahead of you, because we all learn at different paces.”The
Denver Municipal Band is evidence of lifelong music love in general. They play as a 40-piece concert band, 20-piece jazz band, and contract act for show bands, a brass quintet or smaller ensembles, according to their website. “Because of our flexibility, we play everything — orchestral, rock, soul, and funk,” they wrote.
DMB’s relatively modest, $200,000 annual budget is cobbled from a variety of funding sources, but donations continue to play a huge role in its underpinning. That’s especially important since many of the musicians play in other top-notch groups such as the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Ballet, Central City Opera, Denver Brass, and the Queen City Jazz Band. They need to make a living, and while you may be shocked to hear this, the local performing arts scene isn’t exactly the most lucrative gig out there.
Band members carry the soul of Denver, and they haven’t dropped the ball. For its free, July 4 and 5 shows at Washington Park and Cheesman Park, respectively, they’re playing Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” alongside a recitation of the Gettysburg Address, amid other tunes.
“It’s going to be really powerful for right now,” he said. “With everything going on in politics and in this country, it’s a really patriotic statement, and we’re proud of Joe Martin for programming it.”
See more shows from Denver Municipal Band at denvermunicipalband.org/calendar.
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