Gary Lee Aleshire Sr. headlined jazz festivals and took care of the finances for the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. He also wrote Curtis High School fight song.
Gary Lee Aleshire Sr. loved to play trombone.
Even after finishing a show with his Dixieland jazz band, he was never done playing for the night.
Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, the band would load its gear into its open-air convertible and play music all the way home. Passing cars couldn’ t help but stop and listen.
The band’s name? The Traffic Jammers.
“He always had the passion and the drive to do music, ” said his son, Gary “Chip” Aleshire Jr.
The elder Aleshire died July 6 at 82.
A year before the Traffic Jammers formed in 1958, Aleshire was hired as the band director for Curtis Junior-Senior High School.
And when the senior high school opened in 1962, George R. Curtis, the superintendent of the University Place School District, asked him to be its first instructor.
Aleshire promised George Curtis he’ d have a marching band ready for the Daffodil Parade.
In addition to writing the school’s alma mater, he wrote three versions of the Curtis fight song — and let the students pick the winner at a school assembly. Both songs are still sung today.
In the last few years, Aleshire visited Curtis High School, where and he was memorialized for writing the songs. The school’s choir director brought students to his assisted living community to sing the alma mater.
“ (He was) a teacher that had a lot of fun with his kids, ” Chip Aleshire said. “… he always wanted to make them better.”
“His greatest regret was leaving Curtis, ” said longtime friend and fellow musician Mick Crosby.
In 1974, the same year he left the school, Aleshire headed the local musician’s union, where he was known for upholding the values of the profession and removing bands from unsavory venues.
He also was an animal lover, and was the head finance director for the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County from 1978 to 1994.
Despite his various day jobs, “He always had something going — some band, some place, ” his son said.
Most notably, Aleshire co-founded the Swing Reunion Orchestra with Don Miller.
The pair met in 1990 and talked about forming SRO. When Miller returned from vacation, Aleshire had every slot in the band filled.
“Everybody knows Gary Aleshire, ” said Miller, the band’s director. Adding later, “I brought the music and he brought the people.”
The band still performs live the last Monday of each month at VFW Hall 36th on Portland Avenue, and mainly because of Aleshire’s efforts, Miller said.
For years, the trombonist traveled all over the West Coast and into Canada, performing with local bands and appearing as a guest in others.
In his later performing years, Aleshire headlined jazz festivals with trumpeter Lance Buller and his bands.
“A great trombone player and an even greater friend, ” Buller said of Aleshire. “ … he was a great singer, too.”
Of Aleshire’s four children, Lorree Frederick, Linda Rachlin, Gordon Aleshire and Chip, Rachlin was the only one bitten by the music bug.
In middle school, her music instructor told her she wouldn’ t be able to play the flute because of the shape of her mouth. But her father knew better than to give up.
He brought Rachlin to one of his friends for some instruction, and soon she was first flute in the band. She continued to play for 17 years and performed in the Washington State University marching band during college.
Rachlin said she was never as good as her father, but thinks “one of his grandkids at least got some of his pure musical talent.”
At a young age, her now-20-year-old daughter Linnea dazzled piano and guitar instructors who thought she’ d been playing for years. Her mother points to Linnea’s shared birthday with Aleshire as one reason.
“He is a loss to the music community, ” Miller said, “Believe me, big loss.”
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