Music fest to honor Big Band leader

The retiring Carr will be celebrated with the sounds of the Big Bands on Sunday.

Glenn Unklesbay, drummer for the Jack Carr Big Band, keeps the rhythm as the band entertains at Virginia Avenue Park in Hamilton in 2006.

E.L. Hubbard/Staff file photo Glenn Unklesbay, drummer for the Jack Carr Big Band, keeps the rhythm as the band entertains at Virginia Avenue Park in Hamilton in 2006.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 2:41 AM Saturday, July 31, 2010

HAMILTON — If someone calls Jack Carr a band leader, he is quick to demur.

“I was never much of a leader. A leader is a good-looking guy who plays a solo. My talent is knowing real good phone numbers,” he said, referring to his ability to book talented musicians.

That ability will come into play one more time from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, at Ryan’s Tavern downtown.

That’s when a big band music festival will play to mark Carr’s retirement from decades of band-leading. Carr, 86, of Hamilton has been playing since he was 6. The Jack Carr Band has been a mainstay in the city’s park concert series for years.

In addition to Carr’s band, the festival will include the Fort Hamilton Jazz Band and musician Lowell Woodrey. Carr was still in the process of booking groups this week and wasn’t as interested in booking as he was playing.

His daughter, Mary Ann Crease, said, “He loves playing. He’s giving up the leader role because he wants to go sit and play. He sees all the other guys as such great musicians. The people he plays with just think the world of him.”

Reflecting on his years of playing, he recalled how in the heyday of big bands, in the 1930s and 1940s, most of the musicians were in their 20s. Nowadays, “They pay more for a disc jockey than a band. It’s a different world,” he said.

Like many people, Carr became a musician through his family.

“My dad was a musician — a saxophone player. He was the director of an Army band. When I was about 6, he got me a soprano saxophone for $100. He showed me how to finger it and said to blow in the little end,” he recalled.

And even after years of playing the sax, Carr prefers to give other musicians credit.

“I only played by sitting next to guys that played good,” he said. “I played because I had to.”