Army band is online, off tour

Arkansan, mates still performing

Staff Sgt. Hamilton Price, a Jonesboro native, plays his double bass during a performance with the U.S. Army Field Band. The elite band will show a virtual concert today on its website, army- eldband.com. 
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Staff Sgt. Hamilton Price, a Jonesboro native, plays his double bass during a performance with the U.S. Army Field Band. The elite band will show a virtual concert today on its website, army- eldband.com. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)

WASHINGTON -- Covid-19 has upended travel plans for the U.S. Army Field Band but it hasn't silenced the music. Despite the pandemic, members of the elite organization are performing online every day, streaming their songs to a worldwide audience.

As part of its We Stand Ready Virtual Concert Series, the band will post a Memorial Day concert today at noon on its website: armyfieldband.com.

"We're still performing our mission, which is to connect the American people to our army," said Staff Sgt. Hamilton Price, a musician from Jonesboro and a member of the band's Jazz Ambassadors.

Located at Fort Meade, Md., the U.S. Army Field Band is one of the Army's four premier musical organizations, a designation they share with the United States Army Band (Pershing's Own), the West Point Band and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

In a typical year, Price's 19-member ensemble would be touring the country, not stuck in Maryland.

Due to the coronavirus, official travel has been frozen since mid-March.

Large group gatherings have also been suspended.

With the coronavirus spreading, "we're adapting to the times by doing a lot of our tasks, a lot of our duties, online," Price said. "We're following all the [Department of Defense] force health protection guidelines as well as guidance from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]."

While on duty, Herbert Hamilton Price IV wields a double bass and, occasionally, a tuba. His military roots run deep.

"I'm the fourth generation in my family to serve," he said. "My dad served for eight years in the medical corps in the Army and my grandfather attended West Point and he was in the Quartermaster Corps. My great-grandfather served in the Navy on a battleship during World War I."

The 39-year-old began his musical journey at Douglas MacArthur Junior High School in Jonesboro. He played the tuba there as a seventh grader and took up the electric bass the following year.

At Jonesboro High School, he would go on to discover the standup bass.

The large, low-pitched stringed instrument would alter the course of his life.

"I started playing that in about 11th grade and from then on I had a healthy obsession with jazz," he said.

After finishing high school, he studied music at the University of Texas in Austin, earning a bachelor's degree in Classical Double Bass Performance.

He would go on to play professionally in Texas and Los Angeles before landing a spot with the Jazz Ambassadors in 2014.

Only the very best musicians make the cut, according to Master Sgt. Brian T. Sacawa, a concert band saxophonist.

"It's very competitive. We have some of the best musicians in the world in the Army Field Band," Sacawa said.

Price is "an exceptional soldier, an exceptional human being" and "an absolutely amazing" bass player, Sacawa added.

Nicknamed "America's Big Band," the Jazz Ambassadors ensemble doesn't look quite so big these days.

Group gatherings are capped at 10 people, according to Price.

Rather than gathering five days a week to run through their music, band members do most of their practice at home.

"Right now, with the current guidance. ... we can't even be in the same room together," Price said.

Members are doing their best to social distance and to follow health regulations.

"We're all six feet apart," Price said. "We have teams of soldiers from our unit who go into our building to disinfect and sanitize everything: Doorknobs, light switches ... all of our equipment every day."

Since the public health emergency was declared, U.S. Army Field Band performances have been viewed online millions of times, Price said.

It's a blessing, Price said, to be able to serve.

"I love this job because I can use my skills to help this country, honor its veterans and continue to unite people through music," he said.

Metro on 05/25/2020

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