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Old CCHS music recordings available online

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

High school bands and orchestras are usually made up of a few budding maestros, a handful of hackers just playing for fun, and a whole lot of students somewhere in the middle, who want to make the best music they can while they have the chance.

Regardless of the quality of the musicianship, however, the music made with the high school band is usually lost after graduation.

But maybe not anymore.

Anyone who performed with the Charles City High School band or orchestra in the late 1960s through the early 1970s just might be able to hear themselves perform online with just a few clicks of the computer mouse, or few taps of the phone screen, thanks to Doug Gower.

“I’ve been posting up my recordings of the Charles City High School record albums and tapes — band, chorus and orchestra concerts — from the ’60s and ’70s,” Gower said. “Some of these are recordings that no one else has.”

Anyone who wants to give the uploaded music a look and listen can do so by visiting https://soundcloud.com/audiorestoration online. Listeners can also go to the “SoundCloud” web site and search for Gower’s profile, “dynamic groove.” There is no cost to listen to the songs.

Currently, Gower has 54 music tracks uploaded on the site, and he said he intends to add more in the near future. A click on the avatar — or profile icon — of each track will reveal the time and place of the recording, the name of the band that was recording, and the director or the conductor.

“I’ve posted the notes,” he said. “If you look at some of the notes, you can tell.”

Gower currently works as a draftsman in Colorado, and also has worked for a high-end audio company, and working with audio recordings is something of a hobby or “side project.” A Charles City native, Gower graduated from CCHS in 1982. He also was, and is, a musician.

“I play drums — and I used to play saxophone, but it’s been so long ago that I don’t want to claim that,” he said.

Gower’s father, Bob Gower, was director of bands for CCHS from 1961 to 1979 and head of the music department for nearly 20 years. Bob Gower died in 1997.

“We had a bunch of records left after my dad passed away,” said Doug Gower. “Mom sent them all to me about 10 years ago.”

Gower’s mother, Nina, lives in Des Moines. His younger brother, Bobby, a 1985 CCHS graduate, passed away about a year ago.

His sister, Mitzi Gower DeGroote, is a 1980 grad and has been one of the organizers of the annual Charles City Alumni Jazz Band Reunion, which has taken place the last two summers. Gower said he was back in Charles City for this past summer’s reunion.

Recently, Gower decided to start putting the old records up on the SoundCloud site. The recordings were mostly on vinyl albums, although Gower said there were quite a few on cassette, and that he may even know where there are some recordings on reel-to-reel.

Many of the recordings are of either the high school band, orchestra, or both — although some that he’s uploaded are from the all-state band, rather than the Charles City band.

“These were all recorded at various times and places,” he said. “Some of the recordings are better than others.”

Gower said he assumes that on the all-state recordings, there’s at least one Charles City musician among the other musicians. He said some of the recordings were live and some were recorded in a studio.

‘I remember in 1973, the whole music department recorded in Minneapolis at a really good studio,” Gower said.

The CCHS albums Gower has include recordings of the 1968 spring concert, band and orchestra with soprano soloist Carmen Cook; the 1969 Festival Finale, which was the first festival with Bud Brisbois; the 1970 festival with Clark Terry; the 1972 festival featuring Rich Matteson, which may be the only copy; and the 1973 festival, featuring Clark Terry, which is two records, one recorded live and one recorded at Sound 80 studio in Minneapolis.

“I also have a couple cassette tapes that some friends had and the 1970 reel-to-reel tapes, with some recordings that weren’t on the Clark Terry record that year,” he said.

Gower said, considering all the available music he has yet to upload, he still has a lot of work to do.

“I’m not finished yet, but there are some good concert recordings if anyone wants to listen,” he said.

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