Reviving bold-as-brass sendoffs
A tuba-playing podiatrist from Vancouver brings back tradition of bands at funerals
Once he reached a certain age, a point in life when the inescapable reality of mortality sunk in, Dr. Marc Lindy decided he’d like to have a brass band mark his passing.
“For most of my adult life, or at least since I realized one of these days I’d be going, I’ve wanted to have a brass band at my funeral,” Lind said. “Maybe it was that early James Bond film (1973’s Live and Let Die) with the New Orleans funeral, that goes back a long time, but maybe that’s it.”
Music funerals, with brass instruments prominent, were once ubiquitous across cultures and the continent, he said.
Lindy has some fantastic archival photos of First Nations brass bands from all over B.C. — Hazelton, Sechelt, Haida Gwaii, Lillooet, Victoria, Ladner, you name it — but the native practice of playing the instruments at funerals seems to have petered out in the 1980s, he said.
“You don’t find them in the Pacific Northwest anymore. It came down to, ‘If I was to have a brass band at my funeral I’d better start the band myself.’ “
So, about eight years ago, the Homegoing Brass Band was born.
Lindy had played the cornet and French horn growing up, but hadn’t put a mouthpiece to his lips in 40 years before learning to play the tuba a decade ago. It has brought the Vancouver podiatrist a lot of joy.
Besides Homegoing, he’s played with Commercial Drive’s Carnival Band, which took him to events such as the Honk! Festival in Somerville, Mass.
“I played at a funeral in New Orleans once and coming back I thought, ‘Go ahead plane, crash, I’ve done it all,’ ” he added.
Lind is a host of Gospel Train on Co-op Radio, a show that peers into the spiritual realm of the genre.
His band played at the funeral of legendary performer and civil-rights activist Leon Bibb, a close friend.
Then there is the satisfaction gained from the soothing effect Homegoing’s music has on the grieving.
“When they hear that first chord, it allows them to release the emotion they’re holding inside,” Lindy said.
Sometimes the hardest thing band members face isn’t crying themselves.
In one case, a father asks the band to play the Christian hymn, Abide With Me, every year at his son’s grave.
“That’s important to him and it’s important to us to be able to give him something like that,” Lindy said.
The band, a non-denominational, all-weather ensemble, normally includes four horns — two trumpets, a trombone and a tuba — with a snare and a bass drum, and sometimes an added saxophone and clarinet.
The fee is $125 per musician for a two-hour block, anything else is negotiable.
The band’s repertoire isn’t limited to When the Saints Go Marching In or other New Orleans-jazz funeral standards.
One favourite is Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, composed with the English Flatt trumpet (a sort of skinny trombone) in mind. Another is Beethoven’s sombre Drei Equali, written for four trombones and played at the composer’s own funeral in 1827.
At 64, Lindy said he hopes he has some time yet to go, but if not, he’s prepared. He pointed to a performance scheduled for Victoria this summer, one he won’t be able to attend.
“It’s the first time I’ve had to get a substitute tuba player,” he said. “It’s the first time with a different band leader. It’s all set up. I’ve done what I want to do.”