Meet the band that's put the oompah in Alaska Oktoberfest for more than 50 years

The sound is infectious.

And even if the music doesn't quite tickle your fancy, there's the uniform, which is every bit as festive as St. Nick's bright red robe and hat.

Of course, there's also the beer.

And during Oktoberfest celebrations across the state, few raise their glasses with as much zeal and cheer as the members of the Alaska Blaskapelle.

"This band would have fun in a box," said band manager Neal Haglund. "Even if you don't dance, even if you're just sitting there eating your schnitzel, your foot is going 'tap, tap, tap.' "

Formed in 1962, Alaska Blaskapelle plays traditional Bavarian music in traditional garb — including lederhosen, long trachten socks and alpine hats.
The music — polkas, marches with a few waltzes interspersed — is lively and jutting. That in combination with the players' enthusiasm has made the group a perennial fall favorite for half a century.

"There's a synergy there and it rubs off on the audience," said group archivist Greg Solomon. "If you're up there having fun and they see you up there cracking up and smiling and goofing off, they're going to have fun. And of course the beer doesn't hurt."

The group was formed in 1962 by Bill Van Allen, who worked as a petroleum engineer, according to Haglund. During his breaks from working in the field, Van Allen wanted to create something that would serve both his interests in music and Bavarian culture.

"He found enough engineers that played an instrument to carry the band," Haglund said.

Initially called the Die Anchorage Krausenspieler Blaskapelle, the group started small, playing at parties and functions around Anchorage. As their reputation grew, so did their reach in Alaska.

Haglund said the group has traveled from Homer to Fairbanks and dozens of towns in between, even making a trip to Kodiak for a gig. As they expanded throughout the state, the group changed its name to Alaska Blaskapelle.

More than 40 members make up the group, with a rotating cast playing at gigs small and large in Anchorage and out of town. Although the group plays year round, fall is its busiest season, when they often split into multiple groups to play weekends at different points of the state.

[Related: Ready to get your Oktoberfest on? Here are festivals coming up in Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Valley]

Haglund, a retired music teacher, pages through his list of brass players, clarinetists, flutists and percussionists — an electrical engineer, a tow truck driver, a pharmacist, lawyers and graphic artists.

"It's kind of like playing softball up here," he said. "If all you have is 10 guys and somebody's family comes up, well there your pitcher is gone. And if someone is sick or sprains an ankle, now you've got eight and you forfeit. We can't do that."

The band's currency is in its sheet music hand-collected by Van Allen. The collection is made up of popular songs as well as a number of Bavarian rarities.

"A lot of this music was brought over from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland by Bill," Haglund said. "There's probably close to 500 charts, but we only play about 100. To go over there and thumb through the catalog at some small music store in Dusseldorf, that takes a lot of work."

The sheet music is vital, due in part to the complexity of some of the songs. While it may sound simple to the untrained ear, it's often filled with codas and directions that can drive even an experienced player crazy.

"For me, as a newbie, there are road signs in the music," said Jennifer Bachman, who's played with the group for less than two years. "It has a tendency to repeat and play another repeat and then go back into the music. It's quick. You've got to know the road signs or you'll get lost really quick. The guys who have been doing it a long time, it's natural to them. I'm looking at those guys going 'where did you go?' "

Hank Hartman and Jerry Kurtz are part-owners of the band. But the term refers more to guardians of the music than raking in band profits.

"The capital is the interest of the players," said Solomon, who came to Alaska in the 1970s while he was playing in the Air Force band. "Once that's gone, there's no more band."

The group sticks to mostly Bavarian traditional music, including favorites like the "Chicken Dance" and the "Orange Dance," a waltz where dancers pass an orange between one another from neck to neck. Just for fun, they even throw in something slightly more contemporary, like "Woolly Bully" or "Louie Louis."
Haglund is known as a card within the band, often calling out the steps to the "Chicken Dance" with an appropriately themed hat.

"I've got a couple of chicken hats," he said. "One that's a feather hat and one that's ready for the roaster."

Camaraderie is undeniably the main attraction for most of the players. Haglund said often the road trips include a stop to fish or an extra night of camping.
And the band is well known for hijinks, both on and off the stage.

"Sometimes they act like a bunch of high school kids," Solomon said. "There are stories that would shame any band director but usually it's the band director that's pulling the pranks, like Neal."

Always the traditionalists, the band partakes in some beer drinking during performances, or as Solomon calls it, band fuel.

In fact, generally, the band's baseline pay includes food and beer and occasionally a few extra incentives.

"The first year of the Alyeska Oktoberfest celebration, they brought authentic Bavarian schnapps and plenty of it, about five different flavors," Solomon said.

"They mistakenly put the bar next to the band. The stuff tasted like turpentine, but after the first four or five, it didn't bother us."

"The band got up there and we sounded terrible," he said. "The next year they decided not to put the band next to the bar."

Although the group plays folk music, much of which dates back more than a century, it often captures the imagination of young listeners.

"It's fun and upbeat," said Bachman, a baritone player. "It's live music. It exposes younger people to this type of music. It's not the same type of thing they hear on the radio. You can clap and jump up and down and dance to it. It's a good exposure to all ages. For a lot of the younger people in their 20s, they just love it."

Haglund is also trying to incorporate younger members into the group to keep it vibrant. He said about a third of the names on his list are people under 30 and there are even a couple college students who join the band occasionally. He's already eyeing a succession plan with the hopes that one of them will take over for him in the future.

But Haglund isn't ready to give up the music he listened to since he was a youngster growing up in Wisconsin.

"Every small town had three or four small bands," he said. "That's what you put on the radio during milking time. Going into the barn, you'd listen to the Six Fat Dutchmen or Frankie Yankovic and all that and the cows are swinging their tails and they're really happy."

Alaska Blaskapelle

When: 7 p.m. Friday at Humpy's Oktoberfest at Williwaw

Tickets: $65 includes entry, food, beer, gratuity

When: Oct. 7 and 8 at Anchorage Oktoberfest at the Egan Center

Tickets: $15