A band from the Westbank now holds a spot on a list with Louisiana music icons.
The Falcons, a band that began in 1957, was inducted last Monday night into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. They joined such icons as Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Buddy Guy and others.
The Falcons formed in an era when the Baton Rouge area had an abundance of recording studios, and AM radio stations, such as WLCS and WIBR, would play local songs.
The presentation was recorded on the “Baton Rouge Live Music” program, which is found on YouTube.
Maringouin native Donald “Duck” Militello, 73, his brother C.J., 73, and Leroy “Rocky” Jarreau, 77, accepted the award on behalf of their fellow performers who have since died.
“My dad was a musician, and his dream was to have his sons play music,” Donald Militello said.
He and his brothers were sons of a cotton farmer in Frogmore, at the southernmost end of Pointe Coupee Parish. They used school instruments to learn music.
“My two brothers joined the school band – my brother C.J. had a sax that had pads that were leaking and he had to put rubber bands on the keys to make them open and close,” Militello said. “My brother Nunzio, who is deceased, came home with a trumpet, and pulled cylinders out of the valves and knocked knots out of it to make it open and close.”
They picked up songs they heard on radio.
After being kicked out of the band for teaching fellow students how to play music by ear, their father took them to Baton Rouge to a downtown music store. He came home with a sax, a trumpet and two sets of drums, Militello said.
“We were rehearsing one time on the front porch because Mom would run us out the house, and it sounded like a flock of geese squeaking,” he said.
One Saturday morning, they were asked to play for a family wedding in Maringouin at the community center.
“We knew about seven songs – all instrumentals,” Militello said. “We played them all day long.”
The songs included “Red River Rock,” “Red Sails in Sunset” and “Honky Tonk.”
Wilson Angelle was the original vocalist/guitar player for the band.
The sax case on the side of the stage was full of money by the end of the reception.
“That was our first paying gig,” Militello said.
They recorded “High School Ring” on the SAL Records label, based in Maringouin, in 1964.
The Falcons are an ideal group for the Hall of Fame honor, said Mike Shepherd, Louisiana Music Hall of Fame founder.
“This Hall of Fame is not limited to only the biggest of the big,” he said. “My vision is to celebrate good people from good groups, and make the rest of them want to be in it.”
Donald and C.J. Militello, along with with Jarreau, continue to perform weekend gigs on a regular basis.
“The music is just a part of us” Donald Militello said.
“It’s all we know and what we are, and we do it because we love it – we eat, breathe and sleep it, and then get up the next day and do it again.”
