Boston Globe
November 16, 2003

Making a joyful noise, with a purpose

By Lesley Bannatyne, Globe Correspondent

Even the name makes you smile: The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band (or, as they call themselves, SAPS).

Second Line, as in raucous, stomp-your-foot-and-belt-the-choruses New Orleans street music. ''Musicians there traditionally played in the street, in parades, or for funerals," says trombonist John Bell. ''The Second Line was the people who followed the band. They'd dance, play kazoos, carry umbrellas; anything to give the band a riotous neighborhood performance."

Social Aid. That's an easy one, it's on their business card: ''We aim to please if the cause is true and the time is right."

The band's not a political band, per se, but its members share what soprano sax player Maury Martin calls a ''populist, grass-roots feeling." And a love for music mixed with political action. Which leads to . . .

Pleasure Society. The music's just plain fun. Says Martin: ''It resonates. The beat, tempo, joyousness is pretty hard to resist. It's a secret musical dream of a lot of musicians to play this."

''We're regular Joes with day jobs who like to combine it all," is how Mary Curtin explains it.

When she's not blowing sax for SAPS, Curtin's a producer. Bell's a theater professor at Emerson, Martin's a doctor. Other members -- there are 14 regulars -- do educational research, industrial design, or high-level computer work.

The band played together for the first time at an antiwar rally on Boston Common last spring, when Bread and Puppet Theater, down from Glover, Vt., for the event, put out a call for musicians.

''Many of us had been playing as a pickup band for the First Night parade," explains Martin. At the rally the band jelled, the music worked, and they had a ball.

Besides performing at rallies and parties, SAPS likes to parade impromptu, showing up just about anywhere and bursting into numbers like ''Down by the Riverside," ''Sunny Side of the Street," or a slightly altered ''Muskrat Ramble": ''And it's 1-2-3-what are we fighting for/Don't ask me I don't give a whack/Next stop Baghdad, Iraq."

The playlist's as eclectic as its members. Klezmer. Circus tunes. Fats Waller. For a benefit dinner and talk featuring Molly Ivins, author of ''Bushwhacked," the band cooked up a Texas medley.

Ivins loved the band. So did Cambridge City Council members who wanted SAPS to play for their campaigns, but the band said no-go.

''We don't want to get into the sticky wicket of a particular candidate," says Curtin.

Nor are they looking for fame and glory. ''But we do plan on enjoying ourselves," adds Martin.

When the Democratic National Convention comes to town next year, look for the folks in loud Hawaiian shirts playing their hearts out. Cue the balloon drop. Raise the placards. Make some noise. The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band is in the house.