PEOPLE OF INTEREST
The SOUND MAN
Although he’s not one to toot his own horn, Max Duhalde
100
has spent his life making himself known on the local
music scene.
Once a trumpet player in various bands, he has
turned to his self-taught percussion skills in recent years, playing
drums with The Coffee Beans Jazz Band and the Rowdy
Roosters, a Dixieland band. He also puts out the beats for Rivertown,
a country, bluegrass, light rock and Celtic music band that
plays once a month at the newly renamed Pint Brush on Avenue
A in Fort Pierce. But he does revert to playing his horn with the
Latin Heritage Orchestra, a seven-piece salsa band, for which he
plays lead trumpet and does the sound work.
Born in Santiago, Chile, he was given his grandfather’s name:
Maximiliano Duhalde. His father, Orlando Saavedra, was a pilot
and officer in the Chilean Air Force, often flying the president of
Chile in his official plane. When his father retired, he was offered
a position in international sales with an aircraft company. This
job brought the family to the United States where they settled in
Rochester, N.Y. when Duhalde was 7.
The transition from Spanish to English was a breeze for him,
he says, adding, “I went to a British school in Santiago and so
English came easy for me.” When he was 8, the family moved to
Vero Beach, where his father took a position with Piper Aircraft
Inc. “I went through Indian River County public schools,” he
says, graduating from Vero Beach High School, where he lettered
in cross-country and track for four years and played the trumpet
in the school’s marching band, concert band and stage band.
“Our band director in high school took us on a lot of trips
where we met many top musicians. I met Woody Herman and
Maynard Ferguson, one of the elite trumpet players of the jazz
era, among others,” he says, adding that this exposure let him
realize he could make money by perfecting his craft.
The next transition, to Indian River Community College, was
an easy one. Duhalde played in the college’s first concert and
stage bands under the direction of Anthony Allo. Allo’s wife,
Roberta, who was the college chorus instructor, started a restaurant
in the Tradewinds Cafeteria site at the former Searstown
Shopping Center on U.S.1. The restaurant featured singing
servers from the IRCC Company Singers. Allo managed to get
jobs for his music students and Duhalde worked there on the
Broadway music shows staged for diners.
Part-time work during his college years included a stint as a
seasonal helper at United Parcel Service. This work drew him in
as he became a full-time UPS driver after college, filling his off
hours with music and sound gigs in the area.
In the 1980s, he played trumpet with the Joe Moniz Big Band,
playing at the opening of the restaurant at Panther Woods Country
Club. In the Moniz group, he became friends with another
trumpet player, Mark Green. That friendship carried through the
years as the two play together in the Rowdy Roosters and the
Coffee Beans, although Duhalde has switched to drums in these
two groups.
“All my friends in high school were drummers,” he says as a
way of explaining the switch of instruments. “They had drum
sets in their living rooms. I learned to play on my own and then >>
Local musician Max
Duhalde sets up the
sound system for a
jazz concert at the
Black Box theatre.
ED DRONDOSKI
BY PATTIE DURHAM