Sterling Weed Makes Sweet Music At 104

Sterling Weed makes sweet music at 104

Published: Monday, August 15, 2005

By Matt Sutkoski
Free Press Staff Writer

ST. ALBANS -- Sterling Weed has been through this drill before.

He's getting ready for a gig Wednesday at the Grand Isle Lake House in Grand Isle. The benefit for the Preservation Trust of Vermont is a lot like many of the Sterling Weed's Imperial Orchestra's appearances since the band's inception in 1928. At 104, Weed said, playing music is always a fresh experience for him.

For decades, Weed and his orchestra spread music across northern Vermont at a breakneck pace. He often had seven gigs a week, offered lessons at five schools a week and conducted more music lessons at his home. He had a pavilion at Lake Carmi that attracted hundreds each Thursday. Thousands of couples jitterbugged, foxtrotted and waltzed their way across Franklin County to the sounds of Weed's orchestra.

Age has slowed Weed down. He doesn't see well and struggles to walk. He no longer gives lessons. The orchestra plays less frequently than it once did. Sunday, he was feeling a little under the weather and apologized for not putting on a suit and tie for visitors, like he usually does.

Some things, though, don't change. Weed said he practices about an hour every day.

Weed was born in 1901 to a musical family in Franklin County. His parents sent him to music lessons in Burlington -- he rode the train to get there -- where he honed his skills on a variety of instruments, including piano and flute.

He said he's played almost every instrument possible in a swing band, but he favors the saxophone. He said it was simple to learn. "It's about the easiest instrument there is to play. You can learn it in two or three weeks," he said.

After World War I, Weed was in demand as a music teacher and a musician. He started most of the first high school bands in northern Vermont.

At about the same time, swing music began making inroads in Franklin County, as it did everywhere. Weed said he was hooked, and by the time the Depression rolled around, Sterling Weed's Imperial Orchestra was packing them in across northern Vermont and southern Quebec.

The heyday of the Imperial Orchestra was in the 1940s and 1950s, the era of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Paul Whiteman, all musical heroes for Weed. The popularity of swing tailed off some in the 1960s and 1970s as rock 'n' roll took over. No hard feelings, Weed said. The likes of Elvis Presley and the Beatles were fine, just not his cup of tea.

His favorite songs are still old standards. The best of the lot, he said is "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

"I like the sound, and I like the words, too," he said.

Weed is surrounded by the mementos of nearly a century in the music business. Photographs, some dating to 1930, show the orchestra and the school bands Weed led.

Meredith Gillilan, 77, a member of the band, a friend of Weed and his caregiver, opened a large closet in the basement. It was stuffed with reams of sheet music, guides for all instruments in the band. The top shelf is full of waltzes, lower shelves contain foxtrots, polkas and other musical forms. Gillilan said many of the orchestrations are probably now impossible to find anywhere else. "There's a lot of good music here I haven't even heard," she said.

The music will probably be sent off to the St. Albans Historical Museum. Many of Weed's papers are already there.

Weed said he will continue to play music and lead the orchestra as long as he can. "I like it awful well. I'm sort of lost if I'm not playing," he said.

Contact Matt Sutkoski at 660-1846 or msutkosk@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com