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Fall tour a resounding hit with Airmen of Note fans

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tabitha N. Haynes
  • AFDW Public Affairs
Air Force District of Washington --  The guys kicked back with the students who have looked up to them for years over a free meal at Applebee's after an evening performance.

In between the conversations around the eight tables pushed together for the occasion, the 16 people filled each other in on where they are at now in their careers, while occasionally watching clips of the football game on the TV screens around them.

The Airmen of Note performed at West Springfield High School in West Springfield, Mass. Nov. 11, Veteran's Day, on their 2010 Fall Tour. Following the show, the Note members spent their evening at Applebee's with the group of University of Massachusetts students who came to the performance earlier that evening. Among those students were two who had followed them for years.

The U.S. Air Force Band's Airmen of Note, the premier jazz ensemble of the U.S. Air Force, located at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., was on it's annual Fall Tour across four states in the Northeastern U.S.

It was on similar tours many years ago that members of the Note had the opportunity to meet these two young musicians who are now Army National Guardsmen and University of Massachusetts students. However, at that point they were just grade school students learning how to play basic notes on their trumpets.

Spc. Micah Maurio, 24, member of the Massachusetts 195th Army National Guard Band and full time student at U. Mass., originally from Caribou, Maine., met the Note when they visited his middle school to teach a clinic on one of their tours.

Spc. Korey Charles, 20, member of the Massachusetts 215th Army National Guard Band and full time student at U. Mass., originally from Manchester, Conn., met the Note when they visited his high school.

Originally wanting to play the saxophone, disclosed Specialist Maurio, he found an old trumpet at a local open house where students could go buy used instruments.

"The only thing I could afford to buy was this ratty old beat-up trumpet," said Specialist Maurio. "I stuck with it and it sort of just became my music identity."

Specialist Maurio's first time meeting the Note was soon after he began playing.

"Most of our interaction was really a student-teacher relationship the first time around," said Specialist Maurio. Senior Master Sgt. "Kevin Burns was actually the first one I met."

The Note holds clinics to help students improve with their individual instruments, musicality and with their ensemble work, said Sergeant Burns, lead trumpeter in the Airmen of Note.

"The first time I met them I was in complete awe," said Specialist Maurio. "They are some of my favorite players, and they are possibly my favorite trumpet section of current day. That was actually my inspiration to eventually do a military band. I asked them specifically about it, and it seemed to be a positive experience for all of them."

Specialist Maurio continued to follow the Note musicians throughout the years.

In the spring of 2008, at a high school in Manchester, Conn., Specialist Charles also had the opportunity to meet the Note musicians as well during a clinic.

"They were very enthusiastic and helpful to us as students," said Specialist Charles. "A lot of them were very pro-education so I decided to get a degree in education and do my best at trumpet playing so that I could teach and I could play."

After Specialist Maurio received his bachelor degree in jazz performance from the University of Southern Maine, he is continuing his education at the U. Mass., where he is working on a master's degree in jazz composition and arranging.

Specialist Charles is working on his undergraduate degree in music education from U. Mass., while he takes every opportunity he can to play.

Alongside their student schedules, both joined the Army National Guard and play the trumpet in their military bands.

However on the Airmen of Note's 2010 Fall Tour across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, they made time to meet up with the musicians who inspired them to join the service and pursue their music education and career seriously.

"Since they were in our area and a few of us knew the members from previous visits, we figured 'this is a Veteran's Day concert, and we're all in the service, maybe we can meet up and do something afterward,'" said Specialist Charles.

"It's sort of other-worldly." said Specialist Maurio. "To get to sit down and share a meal and chat with them this time, that is something that musicians sort of droll and dream about because it is rare that we get to meet the people that we idolize and admire."

During the Note's annual tours, they take the time to meet with new musicians and students, and follow up with those they have met in the past.

"We have always enjoyed the educational outreach part of our job," said Sergeant Burns. "Actually because most of us probably heard this band when we were in high school and college."

"Every member of that band wants everyone else to grow as musicians because this is our job and our environment really requires us to work together," said Specialist Charles. "Those guys know that. They have an opportunity when they are working with students, or speaking with students, to help us grow, and I think they do that very genuinely too."

"When I was that age, going to these concerts, talking to musicians, learning from teachers, having moments of inspiration, like when I was a freshman in college and I heard the Airmen of Note near my hometown, I was just blown away with the band," said Sergeant Burns. "It was a couple of moments like that that never leaves your memory. At that age I never thought, 'I am definitely going to do that,' but it always put that thing in the back of my mind that, 'that would be an awesome job.'"

There is something special about getting to pass on that inspiration to younger generations, said Sergeant Burns, and because the music world is so "tight-knit" it is fun to keep up with people.

"There is a genuine interest from the Airmen in helping people get to where they want to be musically and professionally," said Specialist Maurio. "They wish well on people. They are not opposed to sharing information. They are all really outstanding people as well."

"They are in the same line of work that I am both as a musician and in the military," said Specialist Maurio, "and that's sort of a little hope and inspiration as far as what is possible to achieve, both as a musician and in the service.

"From the time I was a little kid," said Specialist Maurio. "I cannot remember a time where I didn't want to be a professional musician but more specifically, from the military end, I don't think I have every really considered that until I saw the Airmen play. "

The two, from different states with different stories of their careers, have a few things in common: the instruments they play, their service to their country, their college were they study, and the group of musicians who inspired them.