Doctors Started Business Band By RICHARD G. ELLERS, Staff Writer, The Plain Dealer January 1968
Every week the basement recreation room of an East Side physician’s home here bounces for hours to the beat of all-time favorite big band melodies.
It’s not a nostalgia record club meeting, for the music is live.
It is the weekly rehearsal of what must be the oldest established, permanent 20-piece businessman’s dance band in Ohio. Maybe the Midwest.
The Band is the Top Notes, which began almost as a joke six years ago, as part of the entertainment for the annual dinner-dance of the Trumbull County Medical Society. The original members were all physicians. When the group first organized, it took any physician, regardless of the instrument he owned and played.
A pediatrician, Dr. John O. Vlad, is treasurer and manager of the band. He recalled that the original band was not exactly balanced. “We had two saxes, two banjos, three trumpets, a piano, drums, and one french horn, one tuba and what we lacked in balance, we made up in enthusiasm.
The original band was a success with the members as well as the first audience. So much so, the members decided to keep meeting monthly. They started to get dance bookings, and have played several times for the annual Warren Charity Ball. The band was originally called “The Dixie Docs.” The name was picked for its players did not have a single Dixie song in their repertoire. As month passed, original members dropped out and those who strayed went outside the medical profession aimed for real dance band balance.
Only four charter members remain: Dr. Vlad; Dr. Harold O. Brodell, an internist; Dr. William E. Masters, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Donn F. Covert, head of Trumbull County’s Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.
Dr. Covert still plays his tuba which is provided for in standard dance band arrangements, said Dr. Vlad.
Five of the others teach music in public schools or privately. The others are: A compass company president, retired barber, dry cleaner, mill worker, tool and die maker, and three salesman, one in road machinery, one in computers and one in pharmaceuticals.
Over the years rehearsals have floated from home to home, and then were held in a local restaurant while the co-owner was a member of the band.
When Dr. Brodell finished building his recreation room, the band moved in and has been there ever since.
The band has been getting six to eight bookings a year and their top job so far was playing for the inaugural ball last year at Hiram College when the new president, Dr. Elmer Jago, was installed.
Dr. Vlad collects $2 weekly dues from each man for music, rehearsal refreshments and the pay of the band director they hired two years ago to get the outfit in top shape.
The director is an acknowledged taskmaster, Robert E. Fleming, supervisor of music for Warren City Schools and director of Harding High School Band, which has made appearances.
Fleming pointed out that the Top Notes is the only permanent big band between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. “Many big bands are pick-up groups,” he said. “A fellow gets a booking, then goes out and lines up his crew. There’s a lot better quality in a permanent group.”
Dr. Brodell, band president, said the band plays many teen-age and college dates, although there is only one rock and roll number in the repertoire. He said, “When we play that on, the kids usually stand and watch. When we play big dance band sounds they dance.”
Fleming said there is only one concession to age in the band. “We carry five trumpets, five saxes and four trombones so the fellows can split up the high notes. It’s hard to stay in shape for them playing only once a week.” RETURN TO HISTORY
