History of Travis
In the summer of 1971 Albert “Red” Travis, Instrumental Music Director at Omaha South High School (OSHS), had the idea of forming a brass rock band that could perform covers of some of the most contemporary music of the time. Artists like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, Cold Blood, Wayne Cochran, Chase and many more.
His idea stemmed from the OPS curriculum of that time called modular scheduling. This type of scheduling allowed students numerous free periods during the course of the school day. The format provided students to spend their free time in classes that they enjoyed and where they truly had a passion. Hence, students that had a passion for music spent the majority of their free time in the band room. Mr Travis noticed that many of his students had developed far beyond the average instrumental music student, primarily due to the additional time they were spending developing their music skills.
Mr Travis utilized his Stage/Lab band, the equivalent of the Big Bands of previous generations, to test his idea about forming a brass rock band. He arranged and scored the charts of the bands mentioned above. The proof of his successful idea was affirmed by the recognition of the OSHS Stage band in state wide competitions from 1970 through 74. It became one of the most decorated Stage Band projects in Nebraska High School History.
The OSHS Stage Band became the recruiting pool and audition process for the Brass Rock Band Travis. Many of the original members came from classes dating from 1969 through 1980.
TRAVIS assembled approximately 90 minutes of music and was entered into the 1972 Omaha Battle of the Bands, an open air event in downtown Omaha featuring some of the most popular area bands of the era.This was Travis’s first ever performance and its inaugural opening as a new Omaha area band. At the end of the day,the public voted Travis as the winner of the competition and thus began a 10 year history in the Omaha music scene. Travis played all of the top nightclubs in Omaha and often went on the road to play regional clubs during the summer months.
In the current lineup, Mike Vlassakus and Jorge Nila were original members of Travis and Dan Curran joined in 1978. The band has featured a number of talented musicians along the way and continues to do so in the current line-up.
