The Music Man

ASHLAND December 16, 2007 10:03 am

— The big double bass shows a little more wear than it did when he bought it in 1936, but when Edward L. Buchanan draws his bow across its strings, the opening notes of “Amazing Grace” rumble out clearly.
The instrument is 71 years old and Buchanan is 89; he sings the first lines of the old hymn in a quavering voice and then chuckles at the effect.
“The voice sings and the bass answers,” he says.
Buchanan keeps the bass in the living room of his house on Central Avenue where he lives and still works.
He played in the Marshall University Symphony orchestra until a few years ago. He tries to practice an hour a day but doesn’t always keep to the schedule. The bass is as big as he is and gets heavier every day, Buchanan said.
There’s plenty to keep him busy whether he practices or not. Retired after an academic career and then a second career in the sound and electronic alarm business, Buchanan took up a third career, when he was 82, in the stringed instrument repair business.
A glance anywhere in his home reveals signs of all of Buchanan’s careers and a life spent making and working around music.
Next to his front door is the sign “Plaza Music Productions,” a holdover from when Buchanan was in the recording business. He’s left recording pretty much behind, although he does still dabble in transcribing music from reel-to-reel tapes to CDs.
Inside he keeps the house pretty dark; a pool of light illuminates the workbench he uses for repairs.
Down on the main living room floor is his nine-foot Baldwin concert grand piano, a magnificent instrument that would be at home on a theater stage.
It’s the same house in which he founded and operated Buchanan Sound, which grew into an immensely successful security and alarm business. Buchanan eventually sold the company to Ashland businessman Perry Madden.
He can look out his door and see another old workplace: the sprawling brick building across the street that now houses Ashland school district offices once was Ashland Junior College, precursor of Ashland Community and Technical College.
Buchanan taught music theory there and directed the student chorus. Many Ashlanders remember he also directed the Ashland Community Chorus.
What they remember is an unassuming demeanor coupled with high expectations.
“Ed’s style was rather quiet. He expected us to come in with our part in our hands ready for performance,” said Carl Taylor, who now teaches music at Boyd County High School and is a choral director himself — of the Singing Kernels barbershop chorus.
“His expectations were high. He cracked the whip rather well,” said Max Jackson, a retired Ashland Community College music instructor who sang in the chorus and took piano lessons from Buchanan.
The businesslike approach extended to classes as well.
“He had a nice temperament, but in class we had business to do and we did it,” Jackson said.
“He led me to discover what college would be like, that they’d expect a lot more from me than I was aware of,” he said.
Retired piano teacher Ramona Scaggs took piano lessons from Buchanan in the early 1950s and was his piano accompanist for the student chorus from 1955 to 1957.
“As a teacher he was the best. He was so educated and so capable that he could have named his position in any university in the country, but he was at little Ashland Junior College. Lucky for us,” she said.
That’s what spurred Skaggs to practice, more so than his toughness with slackers.
“It was because I had such respect for him that I practiced. I didn’t want to disappoint him,” she said.
Scaggs remembers the chorus experience as more than singing and playing. Members made props and performed what amounted to musical theater numbers.
One such piece was “Standing on the Corner,” from the Broadway musical “The Most Happy Fella.” Scaggs remembers that one because Buchanan had chorus members build a backdrop resembling the Second National Bank, which was the real-life locale for girl-watching in Ashland at the time.
“That was always a hit,” Scaggs said.
Encouragement from Buchanan made better musicians, said Gail Rous, a recently retired organist for the First Christian Church on Winchester Avenue. Rous took piano from Buchanan and sang in the chorus too.
“He’s such a kind, caring person. He would come in and call me Liberace,” she said.
Buchanan also wrote music for commercials for Weber Sausage, which Rous performed in with her siblings, who sang as “The Saunders Sisters.”
“He is like the Music Man in Ashland,” Rous said.
Scaggs, who recently took a viola to Buchanan for repair, said there aren’t many stringed instrument technicians around, and Buchanan’s learning the skill late in life is a testament to his multifaceted personality.
“He’s multitalented and I think he likes to stay busy,” she said.
Buchanan, who is mostly self-taught, stays busy mainly at a workbench in an alcove off his living room.
Shelves beside the bench hold glues, solvents and trays of parts and tools. Looking down from the wall is a portrait of his mother, Lola Buchanan, who devoted much of her time to a committee that founded the junior college.
On one day he may be stringing the student violin a teenager found in a yard sale and the next rehairing a bow worth more than $800.
He’s made a few violins himself but can’t play them because shoulder trouble makes it difficult for him to hold the instrument.
Across the room several tables are pulled together; they hold a couple of vintage reel-to-reel tape recorders, a computer with flat-screen monitor and other electronic gear.
Buchanan uses the equipment to digitize music he’s collected for years on magnetic tape.
Some of it is recordings of the chorus and a jazz band he played in. He also has tapes from the recording business he started during his teaching career; it was that business that evolved into Buchanan Sound.
His is a rare perspective in the recording industry, said Tim Sullivan, who works for Newtech Systems, a company Perry Madden created after he sold Buchanan Sound and that company fell into legal difficulties.
“There are few people currently in the recording industry that have seen a reel-to-reel tape,” said Sullivan, who consults with Buchanan from time to time on computer issues.
Sullivan sees Buchanan as a musician with a technical inclination.
“The unique part is that he has so much experience in the field prior to the digital age that he’s a wealth of knowledge,” he said.
Buchanan still holds a soft spot in his heart for ACTC and endowed a scholarship fund several years ago. The fund assists nursing students.
ACTC recognized him as a benefactor in 2003.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

Photos

At 89, Edward Buchanan holds a good deal of Ashland's musical memory. And, he made most of it. The Independent