Columbians keep the beat for five decades

For five decades, the Columbians have been synonymous with good music.

They’re the cream of the crop of Columbia Falls High School’s musicians and are considered one of the best student jazz bands around. When the group celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, it celebrates five decades of accolades and excellence.

But the Columbians didn’t start out so impressively.

It was Sept. 14, 1959. A group of high school students with significant chops on a variety of instruments gathered to do something they loved: Make music.

But despite their sound fundamentals, the students’ ability to play together left much to be desired.

“After the first rehearsal, I don’t know why I ever went back the second time,” founder Don Lawrence said with a laugh.

But with a little practice, the band “took off,” as Lawrence put it. By the end of their first year, the Columbians were invited to play a concert at the University of Montana. By the group’s second year, they had made a record.

The first Columbians were almost all juniors who stayed with the band as seniors. They were a devoted bunch who met every week.

“Monday night was sacred to these people,” Lawrence said. “At 7 o’clock in the evening, they were all in their chairs waiting for me.”

That enthusiasm endured through the Columbians’ first quarter century, when Lawrence was their director. It had taken a little work to get the first group together, but Lawrence never had that trouble again.

“The first year I had to do a little proselytizing to get them interested in it,” he said. “After that, these guys set the pace.”

That pace included selections as all-festival winners in 1974 and 1976 at what is now the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho. The festival has drawn some of jazz’s biggest names, including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and the festival’s namesake, Lionel Hampton.

Those victories in the ’70s were impressive considering the large schools, including bands from Spokane and Seattle, the students were up against, Lawrence said.

“I knew if we were going to run a race with those great big schools, we should probably spend more time with the Columbians and spend time on solo playing,” he said.

The schools the Columbians were competing against had jazz band as part of their curricula, he added. In Columbia Falls, the group still met one evening a week.

“I thought, if we’re going to run this right and keep doing this, maybe we should try to get a curriculum class out of it,” Lawrence said.

But his students weren’t so sure that was the best idea, he said.

“There was one of those mouthpiece kids, who always had an opinion. He said, ‘That’d be all right, Mr. Lawrence — but what’d we do on Monday nights?’”

So the Columbians remained an extracurricular activity throughout Lawrence’s 25-year career at Columbia Falls High School. The band survived for another 16 years but it wasn’t until Karen Ulmer took the helm in 2000 that new life was breathed into the program.

It takes a significant amount of energy from teacher and students to make the Columbians successful, Lawrence and Ulmer agreed.

“Don was really passionate about it when it started. I am equally passionate about it now in its current inception,” Ulmer said.

“And the kids understand and appreciate [the band’s] great tradition. They’re pretty excited when they make it into the band, when they finally get to be Columbians. I understand that’s always how it was.”

Ulmer said taking over the Columbians was a little nerve-wracking at first. Although Lawrence had long since retired from teaching at the high school, he still was often around.

“I’d look up and Don would be in the back of the classroom,” Ulmer said, laughing. “But he’s been a great mentor for me. He’s done a lot for me.”

Ulmer has achieved one of Lawrence’s goals: She has turned the Columbians into an actual class.

“I don’t think you could pull that off this day and age,” Lawrence said of the Monday night band he’d directed. “These kids are so involved [in extracurricular activities] that I don’t think you could have an extracurricular band of that quality.”

And the Columbians are still all about quality. They recently returned from playing in the Monterey (Calif.) Next Generation Jazz Festival. The Columbians were one of three special guest bands at the festival; they had to audition to be invited to play.

Students have to audition to make it into the band, which means most of the Columbians are older, more experienced musicians. Senior Uriah Keller, who plays lead trumpet, made it into the group as a sophomore, but by then he’d been playing since about the fifth grade.

Keller said he enjoys being surrounded by other musicians who care about what they do.

He likes “being in an environment where the kids around me enjoy being there and are interested in making good, solid music.”

Today’s Columbians are as excited about the band as the students were 50 years ago, Ulmer said.

“They’re really driven,” she said. “They take a lot of pride in what they sound like.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.