juna lfL2000_?.
Pan Asian Cuisine
Proud to play
Join Us On Our Patio
L
is a
B
Lunch M -F
D inner every night
The dedicated musicians of Rose City Gay Freedom
Band toot their own horns for many good causes
by
Reservations Recommended
W E D E L IV E R
2 8 8 -3 9 6 0
To zip codes 97212 & 97232
1411 NE Broadway
r a d s h a w
i M T A i i m r
M te le n
Sugar!*
§
C LezW kat?
is serving Cocktails!
h WNNANA'
(Starting Easterweekend)
Specials day and night.
Tues. is Basketti Madness!
Thurs. is vegan night.
Always choice of meaty or vegan.
t Portland’s 1990 pride festival, 10 musi
cians sat on metal folding chairs under a
tree in the North Park Blocks and played
for passers-by.
That was the first performance of the Rose
City Gay Freedom Band, according to member
Brenda Dworschak. She shows me pictures
from a well-kept scrapbook that records the
band’s performances and growth. To my sur
prise, I note that the leader of that first event is
conducting with one hand and playing the
tuba with the other!
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year,
the nonprofit R C G FB boasts a long list of
achievements and a solid future. It’s beefed up
to about 35 members and it holds two major
performances a year, in addition to playing at
benefits and collaborating with other groups.
Most notably, the main concert band has
given birth to several musical offspring.
Rose City Swing, a popular 17-piece big
band, started in 1993— before the Lindy Hop’s
resurrection became a full-fledged trend— and
now produces two dance parties a year.
There’s a Dixieland hand, the Dixie Rose,
and a brass quintet, the Brass Rose, both of
which are “on call,” forming and playing when
requested.
Then there’s the Flag Corps— which per
forms, Dworschak says, “off and on,”— and the
occasional woodwind ensemble. All these off
shoots also play benefits and private engage
ments.
Because the band is a tax-exempt organiza
tion, none of the players are paid; they simply
love to play music. Proceeds from all the shows
go toward the management of the band or are
donated to other queer organizations.
Todd Johnson, performance committee
chairman, emphasizes the hand’s role in raising
money for the community: “We are always look
ing to do more in the realm of community out
reach," he explains. “If community organizations
need our help, they’re welcome to contact us.”
The group’s mission statement reflects its
desire to be a charitable organization as well as
an artistic outlet, and also to provide “positive
role-modeling” and “community representation.”
Dworschak, who has been playing trumpet
with the band since its beginning, describes
music as R C G F B ’s “number one thing” hut also
emphasizes the social opportunities the hand
offers.
“When I joined the hand, I didn’t have
diversified gay friends. 1 hardly had any gay male
friends,” she says. “Now I have all kinds....
That’s tine of the neat things about the group;
A
we’re a mixture— fifty-fifty male and female—
and we come together because of music.”
The hand’s ultimate goal, explains general
manager Loren Dixon, is to raise enough
money through grants and major sponsorships
to offer free concerts. Currently, the price of
admission to a concert is $8 to $10, and to the
swing dances about $ 12.
The performances themselves, although not
free yet, certainly are musically accessible. I
ask, jokingly, if they play mostly show tunes. O f
course they play some, I’m told, hut also classi
cal pieces, marches, contemporary, folk, rock,
ethnic, swing, pop and blues.
The swing dances offer members of Rose
City Swing a chance to concentrate on the big-
hand tunes of the ’40s and also to incorporate
more modem swing music. The atmosphere is a
lively dance party, notes sax man Johnson.
“The dancing is really open,” he remarks.
“It’s not like you have to bring your own dance
partner. Everybody’s dancing with everybody.”
Dworschak, also a member of the swing
band, adds that these dances successfully fulfill
part of the hand’s mission to integrate commu
nities in a positive way.
“You see heterosexual and gay couples all
dancing together on the dance floor, all having
a great time,” she says. “That’s the part about
bridging the gap and presenting this positive
image and getting us all together.”
Dixon concurs, observing that the dances
also allow gay couples a venue to dance togeth
er “without being labeled or without people
looking at them .... They can be themselves."
Having long since stored away the metal
chairs of its first performance, the RCGFB
turns into a marching band for the gay pride
parade, this year on June 18.
Dworschak says the band members love the
parade: “We’re waiting and waiting and waiting
to go, and pretty soon it gets to th at.... Right
there, on cue, drums start playing, music starts
going, and people start screaming and holler
ing. I’m in the middle of the band going, 'This
is pride.’ ’’
Cfc ^ - L i W ^
* *»nana is V *
2 2 0 3 NE Alberta, Portland 281-1717
Hours: Sun.9-3 Mon. 8-3 Tues-Sat. 8-10ish (expanding soon) |
J 2 l 4
N O R T H W E S T ->KST 2 7 4 - 2 5 5 9
CJliez W liat?
Heapin Helpings of Heartu Americana
W i l l i a m ' s o n 12
“One of the top 20 restaurants in Portland. ”
- open 7 days -
—
th
Oregonian
(503) 963-9226
Sun to Thurs 5-9pm • Fri and Sat 5-10pm
207 SE 12th, Portland, OR 97214
SSBSBBSa
eating
out *
—
d a ta b a n
A
N a fta s
2821
L\
£ la r k £ t.
"petllM nb, O ft.
2 3 2 -0 9 4 8
T
Tues-Thur 5:30-10^
Frf-Sat 530-10i
Sunday
530-9 pm
*
■
m
» 7
■ Í-
/V cw ccm e in a n ? en jo y
c u r Lim ite? b a r
*
I
Ifc r
€
%
ftOXY
P O R T L A N D
'
O R I
*« >
1 I
'
, * - -
t k l tuA Tt o f the
¿ t fr t A H t O H r Z & ' u t r ic t " I
O O N
1121 SW Stark Street. Phono: 223-9160. Oo«n 24 Hours.
■ ■ ■
■ The R ose C ity G ay F reedom B and is always
looking for new members and is accepting applica
tions far a new conductor. C all the group at
(503) 790-2170, visit www.ramheaux.net/rcgfh,
or stop by the hand's booth at the Portland pride
festival June 17 and 18.
is a free-lance w ater who
can't play any instruments but highly respects peo-
hie who can.
L is a BRADSHAW
Stop by the just out booth at Portland gay
pride and pick up your free copy of the
2000 just out pocketbook
51