By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Cultural mainstay has birthday bash

Let’s take an imaginary stroll.

Move forward to mid-winter and Mobile’s most domineering cultural quantity: Mardi Gras.

Can you see the floats, the lights, the costumed riders and marshals on horseback?

Now what do you hear? What is the accompaniment that sets the mind in stride to over a century of Carnival processions in the Azalea City?

If you’re like most, that sound is unabashedly brass in timbre.

The Excelsior Marching Band has adorned the audible memories of those festive times for most natives and the group’s strains of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “St. Louis Blues” and like staples of the season complete the Mardi Gras experience like nothing else.

This legendary ensemble celebrates its 125th anniversary on Nov. 18 at the Mobile Carnival Museum (355 Government St.) in a celebration to bring a little pre-Lenten season to autumn.

The unit is set to march in at 2 p.m. and will be bestowed with a resolution from the State of Alabama honoring their longevity and contributions. As with any good party, refreshments will be offered. The event ends at 5 p.m.

Any birthday party for the band is apropos considering the unit’s reason for existence was a birth of the human kind. According to legend, John A. and Odeil Pope were blessed with a new son on Nov. 23, 1883 and the jubilant 20-year old father gathered friends to celebrate.

A graduate of the Creole Catholic School in downtown, Pope played B-flat trumpet and his pals were of a similar musical bent so when they met in the building at the corner of Selma and Scott streets that day, things took a melodious turn. Before long, they made things official and added a name.

Pope later became president of the Creole Fire Company but his lasting legacy was the band. Originally boasting 18 members, the Excelsior Band marched in their first Mardi Gras parade in 1884 and have been at it since.

In 1902, the young man whose arrival had been the cause for the ensemble’s birth, John C. Pope, took over the reins. By then, the band’s popularity had far exceeded the Carnival processions.

“Most Mobilians remember the band when it played for dances at the old Brookley Park,” John C. told Sketch Magazine in 1961. “We played many times with the Sam Morgan and Po Celestine Brass Bands from New Orleans. We called the two-band affairs ‘Double Rushes’ because when one band stopped playing, the other aggregation got its cue to start playing.”

They also changed the schematics of parades due to their effect on the crowd. According to Pope, the band was always placed at the end of the Mardi Gras parades “because people would follow and dance behind us all over Mobile.”

In 1951, founder John A. Pope passed away.

In 1972, John C. Pope, who owned a small eatery at the corner of Dearborn and Selma streets, was honored by the Mobile Jazz Association for his contributions to the music form in the Port City. He passed away later that year.

John A. Pope’s granddaughter is slated to be at the anniversary celebration on Nov. 18.

Some of Mobile most renowned musical names have passed through the ranks of the brass band including Cootie Williams (who went on to international fame with Duke Ellington), Theodore Arthur and Joe Lewis.

The band was enshrined in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2000 under the achiever category.

In a nod to its roots, Excelsior is presently under the leadership of another trumpeter, Hosea London. With a bit more musical matriculation under his belt than John A. Pope – London has a degree in Music Education from Mississippi Valley State University – the retiree from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation is works as a musical educator in a regional capacity in addition to leading Excelsior and the E.B. Coleman Big Band.

“I’ve been in Excelsior since about 1976,” London said, “and been the leader for the last decade.”

Membership is tight.

“We’ve got about 10 active members now and four guys who have kind of bowed out,” London said. “We only take new guys on recommendations from other members, it’s invitation only. There’s several younger guys in their 20s we have as well but there’s still lots of people waiting. We try to stick with players who have college experience with music, on some kind of instrument. And I’ve had guys come to us for membership who just play instruments we can’t use.”

The vagaries of the marching acoustic band demand limitations.

“We try to stick with the brass,” London said. “It’s got to be heard when we’re marching.”

The standard Excelsior line-up boasts three trumpets, two trombones, one snare drum, one bass drum, one tuba and three saxophones (one tenor, one alto, one soprano).

The band has proved to be as popular as ever.

“We play about 300 gigs a year,” London said. “All kinds of things: birthday parties, lots of weddings, funerals, official events. We’re playing this Thursday at a terminal opening on Blakely Island. We’ve even marched through people’s houses, playing in their dens and kitchens.”

How integral is Excelsior to Mobile culture? They were a necessary component in the funeral of Eugene Walter, the last Mobilian to hold the unique distinction of interment in historic Church Street Cemetery in 1997.

As expected with such an institution, the play list is the easiest part of the job.

“We’ve got about 55 songs in our book,” London said. “You know, just traditional stuff that everybody wants to hear. And it doesn’t take much to learn it since everybody just has to know the changes. They just kind of make up their own parts as they go along.”

One thing that can’t be improvised is their appearance.

“Everybody has to have the Excelsior uniform,” London said. “The white shirt, black suit, black ties, the caps, that’s a must. We don’t do the khakis and sweat shirts. That’s fine for those other guys but we’re Excelsior. We have a tradition to keep up.”

And it would seem that kind of guidance over the improvisation has ably lead Excelsior into the ranks of Mobile immortality.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

Archives