Sag Harbor's band continues tradition

The luxury yachts and elegant sailboats that fill Sag Harbor's waterfront each summer are mostly gone, and some restaurants and stores aimed at tourists are closing for the winter.

But the biggest sign that the season is changing is that the Sag Harbor Community Band is holding rehearsals for its final concert of the year.

In a village that prides itself on how little it has changed over the decades, the 54-year-old band -- which still dresses in red pants and white shirts for its weekly free summer concerts -- is as much an element of stability as the zoning codes that keep five-story buildings off Main Street.

The group was originally formed as a marching band, but David Lee -- the last remaining founding member of the band -- said that as its members got older, they realized they couldn't keep it up.

"We could march, or we could play. We couldn't do both," said Lee, 83, who no longer plays drums, but announces the band's musical numbers.

But it's not a band for the halfhearted or marginal musician. The Hamptons are filled with talented musicians who know what they are hearing, and the band -- which draws people from the North Fork and as far away as Montauk -- insists on people who know how to play, and on people who can make it to rehearsals and perform every Tuesday night. Members must audition for a spot in the band.

"Basically, they are musicians who live in the community who want to play in an organized, regular way. . . . It's such a great tradition, to have talented musicians who are your neighbors who want to perform for you," said David Brandenburg, the band's music director. "You just never know who lives next door."

Brandenburg has been in the job for just two years, and is one of the band's newest members. He is a composer and arranger -- he studied music at Yale, where he was a member and later director of the jazz ensemble for 11 years -- and has been music director of the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, which he co-founded about 10 years ago.

Lee, Brandenburg and Mayor Brian Gilbride all agree that on a good night, the kind when the air is cool and there is no rain, about 200 people will bring chairs and gather outside the American Legion by the harbor to listen to the band. It is one of the best places in the village to perform.

"The sound bounces off the building," Lee explains.

The programs vary through the year. While some pieces are repeated, the band plays new offerings, from show tunes to classics to pop. There are solos every week, and the band pays homage to its roots by including some marches as well. By summer's end, its members have learned and played 90 pieces.

A big crowd is also expected at the Old Whalers Church for the final free concert on Dec. 13.

"They bring a feeling of community to Sag Harbor," says Catherine Creedon, director of the community's John Jermain Memorial Library. "Listening is a shared experience. Music has a way of getting to the heart of things, past age and gender and experience. The toe-tapping brings you together."