Wayne Travillion

In fifth grade Wayne into started trombone. It was a natural for him. Whenever home alone, he would put on old 78 rpm records of Sousa Marches or Monte Ballou’s Castle Jazz Band and play along with the records, over and over.

In high school he joined a Dixieland band called the Caldonians, named after the Louis Jordan hit, Caldonia . They became popular around the area and several of the group continued playing together on into college. The fact that music helps instill self confidence and other successes may be self evident by how all members of the group pursued successful professional careers: computer programmer, architect, school administrator, house/building designer; circuit court judge and airline pilot.

Graduating in music from the University of Oregon, Wayne became band teacher at the Junior and Senior High Schools in Junction City, Oregon, building a successful band program.

Later, he spent many years as a musician and teacher in Hawaii where he was also named the State of Hawaii Teacher of the Year.

In Hawaii, he played with several Dixieland groups ( John Norris, Ken Alford and Bill Cox). Later he had his own band six nights a week for several years at the Brauhaus in the International Market Place in Waikiki.

Because the Brauhaus gig ran until 1:00 a.m. and was in the heart of Waikiki, other musicians who finished earlier often dropped by to sit in, including Danny Barcelona (drummer for Louis Armstrong), Augie Colon (percussionist with Martin Denny - imagine bird calls behind a German waltz), and other well-known local Waikiki musicians.

Wayne also spent time playing trombone in backup bands for big name artists coming to Honolulu for shows; people such as Della Reese, Englebert Humperdink, Andy Williams, Jose Feliciano and others.

Wayne currently leads the Columbia Classic Jazz Band in Portland and plays with other groups in the area.

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