From 1967 through 1977, Bowie (Md.) Senior High School sponsored an extracurricular jazz band called The Starliners. The Starliners was a relatively standard big band, with 5 reeds, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, piano, bass, guitar, and drums. Often the band was augmented with additional percussion, vibes, French horns, an extra trumpet, and vocalists. At times, there were as many as 23 of us on stage. The band leader during its entire existence was Lt. Col. Joseph G. Carley (USAF, retired). He was paid a salary of $1 per year by the county Board of Education.
During its life, The Starliners produced four albums, Space Chasin’, In Stereo, 12 by 3, and Bowie Straight Ahead. Sales of these albums, along with gigs 3-4 times per month, paid for the purchase of new charts, as well as for travel to jazz festivals and competitions.
As far as I know, digital versions of these albums have never before been available online. Here are all four albums, with full size and reduced versions of the album covers, computer readable text from the covers, and both uncompressed and compressed audio from all the cuts.
Click through for each of the albums.
Space Chasin’ (1967)
In Stereo (1970)
12 by 3 (1971)
Bowie Straight Ahead (1974)
Hi Bob, I am currently working on a project on my blog called the Bowie Blade Pic Project. I am posting pictures of the Bowie High Starliners in a blog post I plan on posting later tonight. Would it be OK to use the nice description of the Starliners on my blog with attribution to you?
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Mike, I’d be pleased to have you use this. Thanks for reading!
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My name is Dawn Moore, I am the daughter of Bill Moore. To other members of the Starliners out there, I wanted to let you know that my father passed away peacefully on 7/23/2011. Though he was only 60 and in relatively good health, he inherited some bad arterial genetics which couldn’t be resolved with surgery or medicine.
He was still quite the musician at his death. Weeks before, he’d been looking into buying a new bass. Prior to being taken off life support I played him some of his favorite music (by the band Yes). Though he’d been unconscious for a week and largely unresponsive, when I started the first song he turned his head so his ear was off the pillow … as if to hear it better. When it was all over he rested his head back down.
Thank you Bob for posting these albums. I only had a copy of Space Chasin’ and a few of my tracks were corrupted. I’ve been listening to them the past days, as well as playing his guitar (I ended up playing both guitar myself). He used to tell me many stories about the Starliners and his days as a musician. I hope everyone involved in this band over the years knows how much it meant to him.
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