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By Ronald W. Holz
As a child, I frequently fell asleep to the sounds of New York Staff Band test-pressings wafting up the stairs of our Kearny, NJ, home. I know those records by heart, and I have the Staff Band in my blood, though I was never an official member. Stories of the band and its colorful personalities were frequently part of our family discussions.
No historian can be totally objective, and I must admit at the outset the background I bring to this study. That has been a tremendous asset, for the most part, in doing research. I was detached in a sense, yet also knowledgeable enough in the ways of Army branding and keenly aware of New York Staff Band heritage via the long-standing connection of my father, former Staff Bandmaster Commissioner Richard E. Holz. I pray that with this background I have done fair justice in shaping a history of this noble ensemble.
Ultimately I ask the reader to look beyond the human failings of the author and beyond the human failings of the band, which was not faultless, and beyond the human failings of its leaders, who were not infallible. What this band has wrought for the Kingdom of God and for the cause of all that is best in sacred music cannot be adequately measured by any human standard.
