Rick Thomasson has played in quite a few bands over the years.
He attended Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester before a long career as a military musician, playing lead trumpet in the Navy band.
Almost 20 years ago, Thomasson took a spot with the Peninsula Retired Men’s Band, not for financial gain but for a love of performing and bringing music to others.
“It’s who we play for” who make the event meaningful, he said. “You don’t have to make money off of everything that you do.”
What is today the Peninsula Retired Men’s Band got its start in the early 1940s, when a few members of the Hampton Lions Club put together an ensemble for club variety show. They enjoyed playing with one another, appearing annually in the show, and when they reached the end of their professional days joined the area’s retired men’s club.
It was about 1948 when the group made the shift from the “Hampton Lions Variety Show Band” to the “Peninsula Retired Men’s Club Band,” said band member Stanley Chapell.
Chapell joined the group in 1960 when he retired from his job with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Self-taught on the upright and electric bass, Chapell was a part of the group when it dropped “club” from its name some years later, as new players joined and the bulk of members were not members of the retired club anymore.
The name “Peninsula Retired Men’s Band” has stuck since, though the band now includes one woman in addition to its male quotient.
Now they play regularly at assisted care homes for seniors, whose residents enjoy the entertainment, Thomasson said.
“That makes us happy to be able to give them some fun time,” he said.
Along with those events, the Peninsula Retired Men’s Band is currently gearing up for a concert at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Williamsburg Regional Library’s theater.
The 10-piece ensemble, which sometimes pares down to a small jazz combo, often does not make enough to cover more than gas money to gigs, but they reap the benefits of the experience.
For Chapell, it is a love for music and playing that has kept him coming back for more than 50 years.
“I kept up with my music,” he said. “I didn’t put my instrument in the attic when I left high school.”
He is an original member of the Peninsula Concert Band, a larger outfit that started in 1950, and continues to perform with both.
Thomasson, who manages the Peninsula Retired Men’s Band’s personnel, said retirement is practically a requirement for membership, as many of the performances are during working hours. The group play an average of six shows a month, which also include dances, birthday parties and church concerts.
While the concert schedule is crowded, the band does not rehearse at all outside of the performances. Thomasson said the musicians are talented enough they can easily sight-read any pieces they have not seen before.
As most of band is retired military career musicians, who like Chapell still play professionally in other ensembles, the list of familiar tunes is vast. Thomasson estimated 85 percent of the members were professionally trained in music.
There are no auditions to join the group – Thomasson relies on his musical network to fill spots as they open up.
“We have a turnover through attrition,” he said.
Without patting himself on the back, Thomasson said the current ensemble is the strongest he has witnessed in his time with the band.
Guests to Tuesday’s concert can expect to hear traditional swing numbers and ballads, the songs many members have been sounding for decades. There will also be patriotic tunes and a tribute to the armed forces, as well as a few Dixieland pieces.
Admission to the program is free.
For more information, visit the Peninsula Retired Men’s Band website.
