Some veteran Wichita performers are trying to make sure the music plays on for a younger generation. And they’re having a blast doing it.
Since February 2024, they’ve come together for three sold-out shows — two tributes to The Beatles and one to the Rolling Stones.
The first one was just for fun.
Joe Sauer, a mainstay of bands here since his high school days in the 1960s, organized the first “Beatles Bacchanal” show at the Shamrock Lounge on the 60th anniversary of that band’s famous Ed Sullivan TV show debut.
“That’s a pretty important date to guys like me,” Sauer said. “It pretty much changed my life.”
Above right, (from left) Jim Hill, Mike Casey, Brad Bartlett, Karen Hill and Joe Sauer made up the Bacchanal Band.
Photo by Patz
In November, they did the same to mark the Rolling Stones’ first appearance on Sullivan’s show, filling the Odd Fellow Hall, a larger venue. By then, they’d decided to donate any profits to Music Youth Partnership, a nonprofit that provides musical instruments and mentoring to students in six Wichita public schools.
Last month, they pulled off their “2nd Beatles Bacchanal,” also at the Odd Fellow Hall. Tickets sold out in four days. Fifteen bands played a total of 50 Beatles songs.
Participants came from near and far. From the Moanin’ Glories, a local band that went on to tour overseas, Andy Gore flew in from Las Vegas and Karl Berkebile came from Dallas. From the Clocks, whose video appeared on MTV, Jerry Sumner came from Kansas City. Retired physician Tim Malone and Brad Bartlett, two of Sauer’s old bandmates in the Cambridge Experiment (“We all had to sound British back then,” Sauer noted), showed up from Washington, D.C., and Dallas, respectively.
Members of Ten Day Wish, Mumblin’ Jones and other groups that entertained club goers here from the 1970s through the early 2000s performed. Jim and Karen Hill, Dave Baker, Bob Gilbert, Daron Kale, Brent Stuber, Joseph V. Sauer, Ralph Teran and numerous other performers familiar to local music fans appeared. Sauer also lined up acts that are still regulars on the local circuit, including Monterey Jack, Uche and the Crash, Dangie and Daydream.
Music Youth Partnership was started 2½ years ago by Cathy Grant, a longtime flute teacher. Grant noted that Wichita USD 259 provides first-year music students with instruments, but after that the students must obtain their own. The youth partnership collects donated musical instruments, has them repaired at partnering Damm Music if necessary, and provides them to students at six schools — West High, South High and four lower-income middle schools that feed into them. The partnership also hires music educators to provide group and one-on-one mentoring in the schools.
Sauer says another show to benefit the partnership is already in the works. This one will probably be held in a still-bigger venue, something like Wave in Old Town, probably in late summer, and has the working title Rhythm, Country and Blues.
Grant has no doubt Sauer and his musical buddies will make it happen.
“Joe can bring people together,” Grant said. “That’s what he does, and he does it well. It was just very organic.”
More information about Music Youth Partnership can be found at musicyouth.org and on its Facebook page. The organization’s next event is Jazz for a Cause, to be held Sunday, April 13 at Prairie Hill Vineyard.
