I first heard trumpeter Bo and drummer Bill Winiker play at a wedding in the late 1970s and they were terrific. They swung like crazy and seemed to know any tune anyone wanted to hear. In a recent conversation with the brothers, I found out they’d been playing professionally since they were 10 (Bo) and 13 (Bill) years old. In fact, thanks in large part to the talent and vision of their dad Ed, some combination of the Winiker family has been playing quality music in New England since the 1940s.
Ed’s story alone is fascinating. Born in 1921, he grew up on a chicken farm in Medfield, a distant suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He climbed onto a piano stool when he was three years old and had the uncanny ability to pick out the melodies he heard being played on the radio. The family nurtured his talent and Ed organized his first band in junior high school. Unfortunately, the principal, Clyde Brown, called the music “blasphemy!” and banned the group from playing at the school. They skirted the pious Mr. Brown and continued to practice at the family’s farm.
Ed’s reputation grew and when he was in high school, he played in the band of Henry Brigode and later with Harrington’s New Englanders. Both groups were what we now call “territory” bands; they did gigs all over a certain part of the country, but didn’t go national.
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