Linda Sweatt, who will sing three songs in tribute to Judy Garland, holds her oboe and discusses returning to music after 20 years. World Photo by Lou Sennick

After more than 30 years of bringing music to the South Coast, the Bay Area Concert Band will once again kick off the Oregon Coast Music Festival, with a concert in Mingus Park on July 14. And among the many local performers in the band, the faces of experienced musicians Linda Sweatt and Wilbur Jensen light up with childlike glee as they contemplate the performance this year.

While neither would admit to nerves, the soloists agreed their excitement is almost overpowering. During the concert, Sweatt will sing three songs in a tribute to Judy Garland and Jensen will play a showcase of songs associated with Harry James, a big band leader and trumpet virtuoso.

“I still get scared, but I'm not afraid. There's this stretch at the beginning where I sing a cappella,” Sweatt said with a mischievous grin, her voice dropping to a whisper, “which is just ... dangerous.”

If the singer isn't exactly on pitch with the band when the musicians chime in, it's disastrous, she added.

Singing one of her a cappella sections, Sweatt dropped into tune effortlessly, like an Olympic diver slipping beneath the glassy surface of a pool.

Much of her time as a student in Coos Bay was spent in the music program at Marshfield High School, where she sang in the concert choir and played in one of the school bands.

“We used to have a hummer of a program back then. There were three choirs and three bands,” Sweatt said. “I had the best music education one could get in Coos Bay at that time.”

And that's a time Sweatt has been remembering a lot lately, as she spends time with old friends in the band and a former music instructor at Marshfield, Ray Riscol, who arranged the music for her solo.

A lifelong love affair

Sweatt wasn't a student of Riscol's, as she had graduated before he taught at the school, but her time in the music program at Marshfield led her to become a music teacher herself. After graduating, she attended the University of Oregon and studied music education, as well as general teaching. After a few years, she returned to the South Coast to work at North Bend Junior High, teaching English and history, and taught music at North Bay Elementary School.

“When I would teach and conduct students, it was like taking a bath in the beautiful sound of their voices,” she said with a rapturous smile. “Kids' voices are so wonderful, so sweet.”

Although Sweatt said she enjoyed her time as a music teacher, she grew increasingly frustrated at the lack of funding for the music department and seeing her students struggle to play aging instruments or use books with missing pages. After several years, she resigned her position as a music instructor and restricted her teaching to liberal arts. Despite that, Sweatt said she had no time for music of her own, so she stopped playing.

But after about 20 years as a non-practicing musician, she picked up her oboe and started again - rejoining the Bay Area Concert Band and rediscovering her love affair with music.

“Some things never leave your fingers,” Sweatt said, holding her oboe in a white knuckled grasp. “I hadn't been playing for many years, but my hands remembered it all, even if I didn't.”

Not long after her reintroduction to the band, Sweatt was asked to begin singing again - an idea that caused great anxiety. She was afraid her voice had changed over the years, but soon discovered she was wrong.

“I sang a few bars for Ray, and before I knew it, he was calling me and I asking me to sing a solo in the concert,” she said.

While Sweatt hadn't been involved with the band for almost two decades, Jensen has practically become an institution among the community band. He and his wife, Judy, have been band members since it started about 30 years ago - and have no plans to stop now.

Family traditions

With Jensen, music is more than a pastime but a family dedication. Both his parents played instruments and encouraged their children to do the same. That emphasis on music left Jensen with three musical sisters, who all play alongside him in the Bay Area Concert Band.

“I've played music all my life. I found an old horn under the piano and immediately decided I wanted to be a trumpet and clarinet player,” Jensen said with a shy smile.

Rather than study music, however, Jensen attended dentistry school and returned to the coast to open a practice. Later, the quiet Langlois native married a musician and continued an inter-generational music tradition.

“Music has been a common bond throughout our life,” Jensen said, tapping his thumbs against the table. “I hope it will continue through our grandchildren as well.”

With light blue eyes peering from behind thick, square glasses, Jensen said he started playing music early. He performed in a band with his family when he was younger, which included playing at festivals up and down the South Coast. After he left to study at Lewis and Clark College, Jensen and his professor traveled throughout the state playing at a variety of events, including “livestock shows, fairs, gypsy weddings and funerals,” he said.

Jensen is a frequent soloist for the Concert Band and said this year his solo performance is a prospect he finds very exciting.

“We have some remarkable talent in the group, including young players. I think our program will appeal to a wide variety of interests,” he said. “I'm sure the band will do well this year. I'm very eager to see the performance.”