I was sitting in the Cayuga Vault recently with some other
Gilroyans listening to the guitar stylings of Muriel Anderson, when
I noticed a lively older lady sitting in front of me who looked to
be about 70. We were there to hear the premier woman fingerstyle
guitarist in the world, a protege of Chet Atkins.
I was sitting in the Cayuga Vault recently with some other Gilroyans listening to the guitar stylings of Muriel Anderson, when I noticed a lively older lady sitting in front of me who looked to be about 70. We were there to hear the premier woman fingerstyle guitarist in the world, a protege of Chet Atkins.
I found my attention drawn to this striking woman with soft white hair and a bright-eyed demeanor which exuded energy and enthusiasm. What I didn’t know at the time is that the woman with the front row seat was actually a 96-year-old musician who still performs with her own jazz quintet, known locally as Velzoe and the Upbeats. In fact, in December she only took five days off; she played the other 26!
Already a pianist, Velzoe taught herself to play trombone at age 13 from an instruction book that cost a dollar. Velzoe soon worked her way up to first chair in the girl’s marching band at Omaha Tech High. As she says, “Trombone was my love. I slept with it … I was a fanatic!”
Velzoe was just 16 when she turned pro by joining an all-woman swing band called Pollyanna’s Syncopators. They played ballrooms and theaters from the east coast all the way to California. In the winter, the band played for vaudeville theaters on the Orpheum circuit, which was considered the cream of the theater chains.
The seven bandmates toured in their sturdy Studebaker; they left the side spare tire at home and carried a drum in its space instead. Pollyanna’s Syncopators played at a time when almost all jazz musicians were men. What they set out to do shouldn’t have seemed possible back in the 1920s. But if anyone told them they couldn’t do it, they just went ahead and proved them wrong.
“I fell into music like a miracle,” Velzoe says.
During the concert where I was introduced to Velzoe, Muriel Anderson paid special homage to Velzoe.
“Velzoe is one of those few people who touches every heart that she comes across. One day I went to visit Velzoe, and I asked her for a favor,” Anderson recalled. “I asked if I could pull some weeds in her garden. I had been on tour and away from mine. I spent the most wonderful afternoon, and I wrote the piece “Velzoe’s Garden” as a tribute to someone who has been an inspiration to me, by her person, her music, and her garden.”
“I want to put up a plaque,” Velzoe said with a wink, “That reads, ‘Muriel Anderson weeded here.’ ”
Velzoe and the Upbeats celebrated Velzoe’s 80th year as a professional musician with a concert on March 2, playing classics like “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Spanish Eyes,” and the “Jersey Bounce.”
One audience member described it like this: “Tonight, Velzoe and her band were playing at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, and we got to be there! She was celebrating her 96th birthday and is still an amazing lively presence, vivacious, full of great stories about walking to school with her pony and touring with the Pollyannas … How amazing it must be, to have stories that relate to events you participated in almost 80 years ago!”
Penny Hanna, one of the Upbeats, explained, “Velzoe knows how to play swing music the way it was played originally, and she’s still able to capture that freshness.”
Local composer Allen Douglas said, “It’s impossible to sit still when she plays.”
The Upbeats play the last Friday of every month at the Market Street Theater for the Senior Citizens Opportunities group, and Velzoe plays regular solo spots at the Sunshine Villa in Santa Cruz.
For more information or to book Velzoe, contact Shelley at Upbeats [at] mindspring.com, or call (831)345-1345.
