The purpose of "A Trumpet Plays Over Arizona" is to provide recognition for those music teachers, musicians, performers, and others who gave me direction, support, and taught me in many ways in order that I could influence young people under my charge so they might have a better shot at life.  Also, in this blog, past musical events and experiences are documented from times ago so that researchers, music historians, and teachers and students of culture can find something useful for their classes and studies.  At times, I will provide insight and/or perspectives on music-related or culture-related topics that I believe might be more informative or interesting for the reader.  Teachers are encouraged to use any part of the blog(s) for their lesson plans or other classroom activities.  

I hope you enjoy  "A Trumpet Plays Over Arizona" 
                                       Phillip Hirales aka Felipe Antonio Hirales


The time was 1954.  The place was Bisbee, Arizona and Jimmie Aira's Grocery Store was the local convenience grocery story in upper Brewery Gulch as it had been for years as a family business.  We lived in the house at the bottom of Young Blood Hill and since it was a shorter walk to Jimmie's than the PD Store (Phelps Dodge) which today is the Convention Center, we would walk to Jimmie's whenever we needed basic food items.  Besides that, my parents didn't have a car and so we walked everywhere. Today Jimmie's is the Mimosa Market and it still is the local convenience store for residents in the area. 

Aira's Grocery Store (Mimosa Market)

The Gulch was always a rough neighborhood because I can still remember being bullied by someone, and often, defending myself by throwing rocks at the kids that didn't like me. My sister, Ana Garcia, would often defend me from the bigger kids, especially when I was carrying my horn for music lessons at school. . That is how you defended yourself in those days.   It was my whole world.  

As I said previously, my parents didn't own a car and we walked everywhere including the Phelps Dodge store which had everything a person needed.   My father walked from the bottom of Young Blood Hill to the Lyric Theatre where he took the city bus to go to work at the mine.  He worked underground as a miner, a swamper which was the motorman helper, and a diamond driller (exploration)  until his later years when he became a watchman for the company.  As a young man, he worked in Bucky O 'Neill Hill which is well known for the Christmas Tree on the hill.   According to my older brother Al Hirales,as a very young boy, he could still remember seeing lights from the carbide lamps of the miners as they walked down from the top of  Bucky O'Neill Hill at the end of their evening shift.  Many years later, as a watchman, one of his duties was to turn on the Christmas lights on top of the company shafts during the Holiday season, and every year that I see these, I am reminded of my father.

Junction Mine Shaft

                                              Photo by David F. Briggs,  ADI

As it was revealed in an earlier blog, children from the Brewery Gulck neighborhood attended Central School grades K-5 (in my first blog)  At school, there was a lunchroom but no cafeteria, and usually, there was some kid that would trade his sandwich for my bean burritio.  Teachers from Central School sometimes would buy a hamburger or cheeseburger plate from one of the most popular eateries near the school known as the Bisbee Lunch, a small short-order diner that was located on main street right below the Grand Hotel  and next to the end of Subway Street.  Down the street, you could stop at the Woolworth store, visit J.C. Penny, or buy a magazine or play pool or snooker at Wallace's Pool Hall, and you could hear the clanking sound of the Bisbee Daily Review presses as the prepared the next edition. In my mind, I can still hear that sound whenever I go by that building.  In addition, men could buy clothes from Dave Ruth's store, and ladies could buy clothes from the Irma Courtel Store.   Just below J.C. Penneys, there was a small music store named The Music Box. owned by Norman and Mary Dart.  Later, we will discuss their impact in music and on Bisbee, Cochise Count and northern Mexico in a later blog.

One day, when I was in 5th grade, a man stopped in class  to recruit some of the students for a part in a movie.  Later I learned that it was for the movie they were filming in Bisbee titled "Violent Saturday" and everyone was all excited.  It was a big deal at that time but not all of the kids were selected for the part, and neither was I.

Upon completion of 5th grade, students would walk up high school hill and over to Horace Mann School which is presently one of the Cochise County offices next to the Court House. Horace Mann housed 6th, 7th and 8th grades and it was a gigantic step for a kid from Central School.  The kids at Horace Mann were bigger and many of them meaner, and later I learned quickly that students should not go to the principal's office because the only law was the paddle; one swing and you paid attention to the teacher.  The band room was located in the top floor but later they moved band to a separate building next to the school.  The Junior High Band was really comprised from students from Lowell, Greenway, and Horace Mann School, and even St. Pat's school.  We  played concerts throughout the year, and I remember Mr. Quill would always have the junior high band play for Bisbee High School baseball games in the Spring.  We played a lot of marches from the "On Parade" methods book from the stands at the Warren Ball Park at these games.  And as stated in a previous blog, I was recruited by the Bisbee High School Band to play with them at their football games and other performances but continued to play and learn more music at Horace Mann.

Horace Mann School

In 1958, our class completed our 8th grade year, and in the fall of that year, we entered what is now known as the old Bisbee High School, or as some people recall the only building in Ripley's Believe It or Not whose 3 floors were accessible from street level.  Our time at this high school did not last very long as the whole staff and student body were transferred to the new high school in January, 1959  that is still in use today in January, 1959.  And what a change it was for everyone including myself. It was a beautiful, new complex but the downside was that there were no school buses to take students from Old Bisbee to the new high school so either you walked or hitched a ride with a friend or anyone that would go in that direction.

Bisbee High School

The biggest difference for me were the classrooms and then there was the cafeteria, that wonderful aroma of food everyday but you had to stand in line. In the classrooms, there were no more blackboards but green ones.  What a weird feeling to be taught from a green board.  Even the erasers were different and bigger.  But the other change in my music education was the new high school band room, and for our band teacher, Mr. Woodmansee, he was able to create new and varied musical experiences for the students.  There was a new sound system with big speakers on the wall so students could hear what the music that we were to perform sounded like.  And the Band was closer to the ball park where we practiced our half-time shows for football games, and so that we could prepare for the U of A Band Day with all the other bands from the state. That was a big deal for a kid from the Gulch.

1959-1960  Bisbee High School Band

James Woodmansee, Band Director

The 1959-60 Bisbee High School Band's excellence was demonstrated both on the football field and in the concert hall.  The group played at all of the home football games and in every half-time performance demonstrated the perfection born of hours of practice.  The marching band attended Band Day at Arizona State University in Tempe.

The concert band after long weeks of preparation, presented their annual concert in Bisbee, then made their annual tour during which they visited Carlsbad Caverns, playing several concerts en route.

In playing the concert this year Director James Woodmansee gave recognition to the extensive talent of many students who doubled on other instruments.  This idea grew into an all brass band for which a portion of the concert was set aside.  

This year's Band followed the tradition of previous years improving themselves.  A truly versatile, unusually talented, and inimitably organized group of top quality musicians. courtesy of 1960 Bisbee High School Cuprite  annual

Mr. Woodmansee was always striving to create new musical scenarios for his band students, and was a master at challenging them to perform at his level of excellence.  He not only had the marching band, but the concert band, and then it became a brass band, and then there was the pep band, and finally, he started the a dance band which played music for dancing and thus:

Bisbee High School

Starliters Dance Band

1959-1960

               Back Row:   Richard Guerra, Organ; Perry Watkins, Drums

Front Row: Richard Hall, Alto Sax, Ronnie Hall, Tenor Sax, Glen Allen, Alto Sax

                        Phillip Hirales, Trumpet

  

...the Starliters contributed a pleasant atmosphere for after game dances.  Made up of top musicians, this band set the pace for the toe-tapping BHS students who crowded the cafeteria for these celebrations---Bisbee High School 1960 Cuprite

Besides playing for school functions, Mr. Woodmansee was able to obtain several engagements for the Starliters throughout the school year at several community events. At the time, these community activities were well attended by many locals at well established locations that included the Bisbee Country Club in Naco, Arizona and the old Elks Club which is pictured below and is in Old Bisbee.   Needless to say that the dances at the Elks Club were very formal events at that time and the Starliters were well received.

Old Bisbee Elks Club

Since we have introduced the Starliters in this blog, we will then turn to other musical organizations that were performing at this time and were similar but more sophisticated in style from an international perspective.  And some of our upcoming blogs will be bilingual to reveal the Arizona-Mexico connection which has always been a part of the Bisbee and border areas.  This is the way it was.

Trumpet Call

On Nov.5, the 2nd Bisbee Mariachi Festival will have been held at the City Park in Old Bisbee to generate funds for the Bisbee Homeless Shelter which now houses men, women and children--a worthy cause indeed for those less fortunate.  It also presents a great musical experience for the young people in the Mariachi groups that will have performed.  I am positive that the community and the Southern Arizona area will continue to support them, and we will see future Mariachi Festivals in Bisbee.  But, I also might add that Mariachis and Mariachi-type music are not unique to the Bisbee area and they were not always as accepted by everyone in the community in years gone by.  Later, I hope to feature Mariachis, their  development from a musical and cultural perspective,  and the impact they had in this area including Tucson and other regions in the Southwest.

As always, I want to remind everyone that my old piano tuner friend once said,
"By all means, stay tuned"

"A Trumpet Plays Over Arizona"  Phillip A. Hirales aka Felipe Antonio Hirales