The East Atlanta Elementary Band – 1949 thru 1953

This dedicated website is a wonderful way to preserve the legacy of Charles I. Bradley and the East Atlanta Elementary Band! I don’t think that the EAEB will be equaled, and there are reasons why: it starts and ends with Mr. Bradley. He proved to be a true genius with his ability to get children ages 8-12(13) to do unheard of things with musical instruments. Nowadays, it is unlikely that someone with his talents would find themselves in the environment that he was in the late 1940s. He came to Atlanta to be the principal flutist with the beginning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. At that time, the pay wasn’t all that good for symphonic musicians in the South. To make ends meet, he obtained a job with the Atlanta School System to teach music in the public schools.  Fairly soon, in his words, "he was having so much fun with the kids, that he decided to do it full time."

He had the knack of an athletic coach to motivate young kids to reach to achieve. At the same time, he had the ability to motivate their parents to join in on his mission to get them to accomplish unheard of things with music. Also, recall that his field of endeavor was East Atlanta, a lower middle class section of town that did not have all that many distractions to compete for their attention.  His relationship with the kids was that they would knock themselves out to covet his praise and avoid his wrath. If they did well at a given week, he would be gushing with praise for them. If they did average or less, his disappointment would be just as intense. The parents would have to attest on a daily basis that the child did practice 45 minutes a day! Once a child made it to one of the bands, he or she would constantly be in competition with the person behind and ahead of them.  During any band practice, the child would be told to play a musical phrase from the practice selection. The person immediately behind or in front of him would then play the same phrase. If the person was outperformed, he would temporarily lose his/her chair. This motivated the child to practice harder to regain his position.

Charlie also had a razor sharp memory that most great people have. He also had perfect pitch. He could tune the band without having to rely on technology, and do it with incredible speed. Nothing ever escaped him during a practice. He could sense a third clarinet section that was not playing the correct notes or not in tune and have the third section members each play the musical phrase at the same time while he was shaping a reed for another player. No one ever escaped his scrutiny. The first chair trumpet would be assailed for not being brilliant with the same intensity that the forth chair trombone would get it for missing a note. Nothing was ever good enough.

The week leading into the district or state festivals was always a "disaster". Each member of the band approached a festival as a ‘do-or-die’ situation. He once said that the reason that he could get young children to perform such difficult music was that, "I never told them that it was hard." Perhaps the epitome of all the performances of any section of all his bands would be the 1961 flute section in the opening of the "Incidental Music of A Midsummer Night’s Dream". Charlie related that the way he motivated the kids to those heights of achievement was to tell them that "those who learn this will receive an additional 500 points on their point rating." This day and time does not find a community with the stay-put stability of the late 40′s – early 60′s. Remember that the early 60′s was the beginning of abrupt, social changes. White flight to the suburbs began in 1962. Charlie said that the EAE Band reached its peak in 1961, and after that, there was an "ever so slight" decline on a year-to-year basis. The greatness of the East Atlanta Elementary Band began and ended with Charles I. Bradley, and it is unlikely that it will ever be repeated.

Submitted by, Robert Argoe