AUSTIN SYMPHONIC BAND AND RHYTHM & BRASS

7:30 tonight

WHERE: Palmer Auditorium

TICKETS: $9 ($6 for students and seniors)

INFORMATION: 345-8420 [sic! Thanks for the typo, AA-S .. it's 345-7420.]

Band music has worked its way into the American DNA.

It makes up a very small part of record sales, it gets little radio airplay , and most folks would be hard-pressed to name a famous band musician since John Philip Sousa. Though the music never seems to enjoy a faddish popularity, it never goes out of style, either.

And it persists as a part of the American experience. There is no shortage of musicians who want to play it, and Austin Symphonic Band director Richard Floyd is never surprised when 2,000 folks show up at one of his group's concerts.

Floyd, who is on the music faculty and is state director of music activities for the University Interscholastic League at the University of Texas, has led the 15-year-old, 100-or-so-member ensemble since 1985.

He has plenty of first-hand evidence of its universality. He remembers driving through Cody, Wyo., when he was in his 20s. ``We could hear a band playing, so we decided to turn off and look for it,''he said. Floyd found the band playing in a park and joined the audience on the grass. ``People were sitting in the parks and on blankets and having a wonderful time,'' Floyd said. ``That's a big part of the appeal for the audiences; it is something families can enjoy together.' '

After chatting with the musicians during a break, they invited him to play. Floyd's car trip was interrupted briefly as he found himself on the bandstand playing a borrowed clarinet with newly found friends. He said musicians are attracted to playing band music for refreshingly simple reasons. ``What is really wonderful is that people are there with no extra agendas,'' Floyd said. ``They enjoy playing music and sharing it with an audience.''

For tonight's Austin Symphonic Band concert, Floyd has invited some old friends as special guests: Rhythm & Brass, a Dallas-based sextet. The Austin Symphonic Band has performed with the brass quintet and percussionist several times around the state, but this is the first time they will play together in Austin.

``They do everything from the Renaissance to Duke Ellington, Floyd said. ``Their notion is that in an hour-and-45-minute concert they want to play music the audience will enjoy. They aren't just a classical group or a jazz group, but they move freely between the two.'' Rhythm & Brass also will give concerts and demonstrations in several area schools.

The Austin Symphonic Band's musicians come from a variety of backgrounds and range in age from the late teens to the early 70s. ``They represent a profile of the community,'' Floyd said ``We have attorneys and doctors . One member is a sales director for Mary Kay, another is a florist designer, architects, professors and a lot of people from the electronics industry.''

And playing in the band is no less a family experience for some of the musicians. ``We have a mother and son on French horn and father and son that play trumpet,'' Floyd said.

While its repertory is deeply rooted in the vast repertory of wind music dating back to the Renaissance, the symphonic band is a 20th- century invention, borne largely out of university music programs. But some ambiguity remains, even among musicians, as to what exactly a symphonic band is.

``The debate continues to rage about what `symphonic band'means,'' Floyd said. ``Usually it refers to a group that is larger than a wind ensemble and to the scope of the kind of music it would attempt to play.''

While some might debate what the name means, no one much cares when the band is playing. ``For the most part this is happy music, and it has a broad appeal,'' Floyd said. ``And somehow it tugs at our roots.''

Copyright © 1996, The Austin American-Statesman