A Walk in the Park : Band of 22 Students Performs Daily Around Disneyland as Part of Unique Program

They might be called “the 22-Minute Men and Women.”

They are the Disneyland All-American College Band, a co-ed group of 22 students from around the United States who spend the bulk of their summer (this year June 1 through Aug. 17) taking part in a unique work experience program at the theme park.

Playing a variety of music from jazz to hip-hop, the band can be heard daily at several locations in the park.

It performs in New Orleans Square in Frontierland at 4:30 p.m., and at the Carnation Plaza Gardens at 5:30 p.m., where it plays a sit-down concert that features such guests as pianist Ellis Marsalis, who played Tuesday and Wednesday, and saxophonist Jamey Aebersold, who appears today. The group also performs in the Fantasyland Castle Courtyard at 6:35 p.m., and in front of Captain E-O in Tomorrowland at 7:30 p.m. Then the group plays a pre-Electrical Parade show, marching down the parade route and entertaining the waiting throng.

“And each of our performances last about 22 minutes. We’ve got it down to a science,” said the band’s director, Ron McCurdy.

The program gives students a taste of the world of the professional musician, and its various rigors and demands, McCurdy explained by phone from his summer condo in Brea. “It’s really educational. We don’t just perform. The students rehearse each day, they attend workshops and we take them to recording sessions in Los Angeles.”

McCurdy, 38--who is not related to jazz drummer Roy McCurdy--is an alumnus (he plays trumpet) of an identical program that is held each summer at Walt Disney World in Florida. He credits the experience with getting him on track for a career in music.

“I was 18 at the time, it was 1974, and it really changed my life,” said McCurdy, who is now director of the jazz program at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “One of my roommates was a kid from the Eastman School of Music (in Rochester, N.Y.) and he was more serious than I was, getting up in the morning and starting right in on his practicing, something I had not yet discovered.

“I was just looking to have a great time, you know, being a typical 18-year-old knucklehead, not quite sure what to do with my life. Well, I got a wake-up call, seeing all these musicians striving for excellence.”

McCurdy has directed the Disneyland band for three of its 21 years.

The band is made up of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas, mellophones and rhythm instruments, and its members are chosen from the more than 1,500 musicians who audition each winter in 11 cities nationwide. McCurdy and a few others select the players.

“We look for excellent musicianship, versatility and good people who can get along in a group situation,” he said.

To keep the program balanced, the players are selected from schools all over the United States, not just from the top music schools, such as University of North Texas in Denton or Eastman. “We could fill out the entire band from either of those schools,” McCurdy said, “so we’re careful to keep a good mixture by taking, say, one from the University of Oregon, another from Eastman, maybe two from California, and so on.”

When the players arrive in the Southland, they stay in apartments in Fullerton and travel by bus to Disneyland in Anaheim. For two weeks, they go through a sort of musical basic training, spending 10-hour days memorizing the 20-odd pieces they’ll perform during the summer.

Once that task is completed, the musicians then take part in daily workshops, which could be anything from McCurdy lecturing on jazz improvisation to guests such as Marsalis, reedman Gary Foster or trumpeter Conte Candoli explaining how they conduct their careers.

McCurdy relishes his time at Disneyland. “I’m having the time of my life, working with high-caliber, motivated students,” he said. “It’s a great way to spend a summer.”

The Disneyland All-American College Band plays daily at Disneyland, 1313 Harbor Blvd., Anaheim. Park hours are 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. Admission: $23 to $28.75 (the band plays free, at locations throughout the park). Parking is $5. (714) 999-4565.