Since stepping onto the stage at just seven years old, Brian Nadeau has been making a lasting impact in the world of music. Now, he’s working to ensure that the magic of big band jazz continues for future generations.
For decades, Nadeau has been a leading jazz trumpeter in Maine, playing with prominent bands, collaborating with well-known celebrities, and teaching young students to appreciate the instrument and the genre he loves.
“What I love about this [instrument] is this tool becomes part of my heart and soul,” Nadeau shared.
While Nadeau has enjoyed performing across New England for over 40 years, his greatest joy now comes from playing at nursing homes, where the music from the big band era has the power to bring memories to life.
“When you go to a nursing home and play for Alzheimer’s patients, and you play an old tune tenderly, and you see them mouthing the lyrics—these are Alzheimer’s patients—you see that’s very powerful,” Nadeau explained.
It’s the jazz, big band, and Dixieland music Nadeau learned early in his career that helps trigger these powerful memories.
“The story of my life as a musician, I had some of the most glorious years when they were still around being able to play that stuff,” he smiled.
Nadeau’s musical journey began at a young age, thanks to his father, a professional trumpet player. At six, he began lessons, and by seven, he was performing on stage with the Al Corey Band. Years later, Nadeau would join the band again, eventually becoming its director.
His career took a major turn after high school when, at 18, he secured a job playing trumpet with the well-known Winkler Orchestra in Boston.
“Forty to 50 years ago in Boston, Brian got his lucky break,” he recalled. “And when I came home, I was working almost every weekend. Because back then, there was a future in it.”
In Boston, Nadeau had to memorize over 100 songs and perform six nights a week, often as the featured band at the Parker House hotel. This strong work ethic served him well in the years to come, playing with bands across Maine and filling in for touring groups or public events.
Weddings, celebrations, dances at American Legion halls and Elks lodges, and New Year’s Eve shows kept Nadeau and his fellow musicians busy.
Sadly, these opportunities have largely disappeared, as younger audiences no longer have the same interest in the type of music Nadeau and his colleagues played.
“What you’ll find is if you do a wedding, you may get a call for a small jazz combo for cocktail hour, and then you can do ‘Stella by Starlight’ and ‘Misty’ and all those things in cocktail hour,” he said. “But after you get a crashing rock band up from Boston, and they are coming up here for weddings, the rock takes over.”
He continued, reflecting on the changing musical tastes: “The funny thing is, you do that cocktail hour, and they love it. But after that, the rock takes over, and you just wonder, ‘How did we ever get this going?’”
Despite this shift, Nadeau and his jazz group continue to find opportunities to perform. They have gained a new following as the house band for “The Nite Show with Dan Cashman,” a Bangor-based, weekly late-night entertainment show.
“They are so good—so good,” said Cashman, a bass and horn player himself.
Nadeau sees the show as a chance to keep the music alive, saying, “For sure, during commercial breaks. And what’s refreshing to me is the crowd loves it. Even if it is jazz, they love it. We do different things, we’ll do some Beatles, Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago.”
With “The Nite Show” wrapping up in the spring, Nadeau plans to keep the band together, seeking more venues and bookings to continue playing their beloved music.
Though the band’s repertoire may include newer songs, it still features the classic blend of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, piano, and percussion that defines the big band sound.
Nadeau continues to teach jazz to private students and high school bands. He has even formed a new big band, made up of high school graduates eager to keep playing together.
He remains committed to preserving and sharing the big band legacy, hoping that new audiences will rediscover its magic.
“There is still an audience that loves a big band when they hear it,” Nadeau said. “A ’50s, ’60s big band. They don’t know what it is until they get on site and hear it, and, ‘WOW!’ And, ‘I love that!’ Because when it happens, the magic is still there, it still works.”
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