Formation and early years The band that eventually became the Peninsula Banjo Band was formed by Chuck Ray Sr. in 1963. Ray was a music teacher and local musician in the South Bay area. Ray could often be found performing with his
plectrum banjo at the
Shakey's Pizza and Big Al's pizza parlors in San Jose, California. In 1962 a group of Ray's students approached him about forming a band. Ray agreed and an informal group was formed. As the group practiced together and improved they were eventually asked to entertain in public. They called themselves the Cupertino Banjo Band and the original nine members were Glenn Atkinson, Jerry Deerwester, Don Flora, Pearl Nicolino, Chuck Ray Sr., Manuel Rodriques, Steve Sedlak, Sidney Steele, and Merle Wilhelm. Later, as the group increased in size, they temporarily called themselves the Golden Gate Banjo Band. Then in 1971, as an acknowledgment that band members came from a much larger area than Cupertino, they came up with the name Peninsula Banjo Band. The band included members from as far south as Santa Cruz and as far north as
Burlingame.
New band leader In 1964, the owner of the Sakura Gardens restaurant in
Mountain View, California was in Tokyo for the
summer Olympics and discovered a young devotee of famous banjoist
Harry Reser. This young performer was
Zenzo Tagawa. The restaurant owner was so impressed by Tagawa's skill with a tenor banjo that he offered him a contract to play at his restaurant in the U.S. After reaching the United States, Zenzo Tagawa was rapidly Americanized to
Charlie Tagawa and soon after he was discovered by numerous restaurant patrons as well as other banjo players in the area. Tagawa played regularly at Sakura Gardens and its successor restaurant, Imperial Gardens, for fifteen years. On many evenings, one or another of Tagawa's banjo or
gutbucket-playing friends would drop in to listen or to jam with him. As word traveled of Tagawa's playing skill, he was asked to join the Cupertino Banjo Band. He did so and became their leader in 1966. He has remained so for all but two of the subsequent forty-six years. After taking up residence in Cupertino, Tagawa became a banjo teacher that specialized in teaching young children and teenagers to play the 4-string banjo.
Non-profit incorporation In 1974 in preparation to apply as a charitable nonprofit California corporation the group elected Tagawa as president. This filing was a first step towards gaining
501-c-3 non-profit status. The group was awarded non-profit status by the
Internal Revenue Service Fans were presented a historical journey through the various eras of banjo music that was narrated by Strickland with a short verbal introduction to each piece and mention of its historical significance. Special guest performers were Bill Lowrey,
Kevin McCabe, and Steve Peterson. The session was recorded and in keeping with band tradition limited edition CDs were distributed to band members. There have been notable contributions by non-president band members as well. The late Gene Sandberg is credited with the restart of the band's newsletter, titled "PBB News & Views", in 2001. It was originally distributed in printed form and mailed to each band and auxiliary member plus selected fans and people in the banjo community. Gene compiled, edited, and published the newsletter for several years until retiring from his post. The duty was then taken over by Jim Strickland. Around the same time Strickland starting researching and writing a series of articles about the history of the music and lyric writers for the songs in the PBB's library. These became known as the banjo music story books.
Charitable giving The earliest known charitable donation by the band was made to the Braille Fund. Two members of the band were blind, Emil Hakkila and George Chung. Charitable contributions then and since have always favored those organizations having some emotional connection to the group. The foundation portion of the organization, separate from the musical group, has established a scholarship program for banjo lessons and
washtub bass (gutbucket) training. In memory of band members Ray Ferrie and George Seeband who bequeathed their banjos to the band, those wishing to learn to play the plectrum banjo are awarded a "Ray Ferrie Scholarship" and those studying tenor are awarded a "George Seeband Scholarship". Both are granted the use of their respective banjos during the term of their scholarship if they do not have an instrument. ==Notable performances and recordings==