We Can Hear You on the Hill tells the story of the formation of the Chatham MA town band in 1931 by a talented mechanic who seemed to excel at anything he tried. A motorcycle and boat race driver, he proved instrumental in the first flight across the Atlantic as a young man in 1919. He then gathered friends, most of whom had never played musical instruments, arranged for lessons and began the building of the band into one of the most popular town bands in North America. The book describes how some of the impetus for the band may be ascribed to the Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Along the way, the band garnered interest and help from an exceptional group of musicians, including the first director, Thomas Nassi, a tough Albanian cavalryman involved in preventing the partition of Albania after he had helped it gain independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. Flying back and forth and meeting with the Albanian King Zog on strategy in the thirties. he wrote the national anthem of Albania played today. The band went on to spawn talented musicians who played for performances of several famous groups, including Gladys Knight and the Pips, Patti Page, Chuck Mangione and others. Another member excelled in baseball, pitching a no-hitter, while another, a physician, tended to European Royalty living in the town during WWII. Several distinguished themselves during the war, surviving the Battle of the Bulge and liberating concentration camps, or giving the ultimate sacrifice in both ground combat and bomber operations The band has been playing continuously since 1931 (1932 under the Chatham Band name) except when the members traded their instruments for weapons in WWII. . Tip O'Neill, speaker of the House of Representatives, declared the band's director for forty-eight years, Whit Tileston, to be the man who made Chatham. It now draws a crowd of three to five thousand each concert Friday night in the summer to this resort town famous for weather data gathering in the elbow of Cape Cod, for its lighthouse ordered built by Thomas Jefferson and for the great white shark population that inspired the name of the Monomoy Regional High School Sharks.
About the Author: The author retired from service with the federal government in 2002. He worked in Congress on Capitol Hill, in the Office of the Secretary of the Army in the Pentagon and on projects for the US and foreign navies. As a youth, he studied piano and later violin. Upon retirement he began trumpet lessons in order to play in the Chatham Band, which he had attended many times while on vacation. After three years, he joined the Lower Cape Concert Band and five years later was invited to attend rehearsals of the Chatham Band, which resulted in his acceptance into the band. As a hobbyist. he has also built several boats, owned many boats, made many stained glass panels, made a number of bicycle tours, and is a collector of financial documents of historic significance, old currency, coins and old clocks.