BRATTLEBORO-With so much music happening in recent decades at 22 High St., one could argue it may be Brattleboro's version of Manhattan's Brill Building.
Unlike the storied New York City office tower, this four-story brick structure is not where Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and scores of other hit makers arguably defined the sound of 1960s popular music.
But its current and recent tenants certainly have contributed to decades of song and dance in and around town. Practice space for bands. A dance school. A dance-party DJ's studio. Dance parties in a restaurant to benefit the community radio station. The community radio station.
And, in a cozy workshop on the top floor, with photos of female saxophonists adorning the walls, toils a woman who contributes her own skills toward keeping local horn players in fine fiddle: Julia Friend, proprietor of JF Woodwind Repair.
Since the winter of 2022, Friend has repaired all manner of flutes, clarinets, saxophones, oboes, and bassoons in her Brattleboro shop.
"I work with kids starting off playing an instrument. I also work with pro horn players. Or people who are excited because they just bought a cool, vintage saxophone and they need it repaired. Then, I'll fix a kid's clarinet they dropped," Friend said.
"I serve a wide swath of people," she observed.
Folk music by ear
Although she admits she was never in the school orchestra or marching band - or any band, for that matter - music has always been central to Friend's identity, even before she was born.
Her parents were involved in the 1950s and '60s folk and protest music scenes in Brooklyn, with an abundance of "musical potlucks" where friends would gather in one another's home to share, listen to, and sing songs.
This continued into Friend's childhood. "I grew up singing folk music by ear and listening to people harmonize by ear. Listening to a lot of Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson," she said.
"I played folk instrumental banjo in informal social groups, or for performances, but I've never been in a band, where we'd practice," Friend continued. She does sing, dance, and play music for morris dances, and, since embarking upon a woodwinds-repair career, she has taken flute and saxophone lessons.
As a young woman, Friend left her childhood home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to attend Oberlin College in Ohio. Next stop: Washington, D.C.
While in her early 20s, she would pick a place to live based on its proximity to friends and family, and then she would try to find a job there. That brought her to the nation's capital, where she worked for a food cooperative and then got a job as assistant manager of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's craft tent, which involved sourcing and inventorying contemporary folk art.
By her mid-20s, Friend was, in her own words, "floundering, wondering what to do with myself." She knew she didn't want to "get stuck in an office; I wanted to see the physical results of my work."
Handling handmade items and meeting the people who made them in her Smithsonian job planted a seed in Friend's mind about how to earn a living.
Some of her peers were making musical instruments, but she saw how hard it was for them to make a steady living doing that.
But then a friend mentioned the possibility of repairing woodwinds, putting into her mind another option: Instead of making musical instruments, what about making them playable and beautiful again?
Intrigued by the possibility of doing something so different from anything else she had done, Friend began researching repair schools. She found Renton Technical College Band Instrument Repair Technology program, in a suburb of Seattle, Washington - schooling that would cost vastly less than a liberal arts education.
So, Friend took the train from Washington, D.C., to Seattle - "it was fun!" she said - and nine months later, she had earned her certificate.
"Then I had a kind of crossroads moment," Friend said. With a glut of students in the Seattle area coming out of the program, Friend's professor was helping to place the graduates elsewhere.
As the only East Coaster in her class, the Brooklyn native landed in a job in New Haven, Connecticut, at Tim Moran Woodwinds.
"I had no friends or family there, but you have to take a job somewhere," said Friend.
Although she still has mixed feelings the job, it suited her well.
"That gig was amazing," said Friend, who worked with Moran for a decade. "It was a really intense experience. I worked with one guy who is of the age of my dad. Eight hours a day, five days a week, for 10 years."
She said she "learned a lot about my profession, but also [Moran's] life story and his perspective," and the importance of interpersonal interactions with clients.
Starting in the right place at the right time
The New Haven area has long had many theaters for Broadway musicals to get workshopped, and these productions have provided plentiful work for pit-orchestra players. This activity has built a steady cadre of talented musicians who have taught in public schools and played in statewide orchestras.
In addition, schools like Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and The Hartt School performing art conservatory at the University of Hartford all have jazz programs.
All together, the region had a critical mass of woodwinds that provided many opportunities for Friend to gain technical experience, as well as hear the stories told by seasoned pros.
Friend values the experience, but, she said, "I moved there knowing I didn't want to live in New Haven forever, long-term."
She acknowledges, though, that had she not hit rock-bottom, she would never have left of her own volition.
But the decision was made for her.
During the Covid lockdown, Moran temporarily closed the store. When he reopened, he did not have enough work for Friend.
She collected unemployment insurance, but after a year had passed, Moran still was not able to rehire her.
Friend decided to venture northward to be closer to friends who lived in western Massachusetts.
"I'm from New York, so I have a small feud with Boston," Friend said, laughing. She also knew, from living next door to Yale for 10 years, that she did not want to stay in a college town with its homogeneous purpose and transient population.
So she kept going.
"Brattleboro was the next stop up [Interstate] 91," Friend said. The lay of the land appealed to her. "The topography here is so weird!" Friend said, noting the dramatic dips and peaks in the river-valley town.
"I love being here in Brattleboro. I already had friends here, and I made more." Her boyfriend, Yann Falquet, is a self-employed guitarist in a Québécois band, and he was very encouraging of Friend when she was considering opening her own shop.
She also found support from the local elementary schools, from the Brattleboro Music Center, from Keene State College, and from music teachers in Northampton and Burlington.
Slow, but steady growth
JF Woodwind Repair is growing slowly, but it is growing. "People are coming from further afield," Friend said.
Friend loves the practice of fixing something - not just throwing it away. "Being the emergency repair person is fun," she said. "I love that level of mechanical work, where I can see all the moving parts."
"I get to work with cool materials. It's tactilely enjoyable," said Friend, who detailed the tools of her trade. "I use a small flame or induction heating clamp to install or shift pads with glue or shellac. I work with felt, cork, shellac, paper shims, screwdrivers, canvas, rawhide, hammers, pliers in a million shapes, steel dent tools, etc.
"It takes a lot of time and patience and perfectionism," she said.
Friend noted there is also plenty of variety, even just among the saxophone - a relatively new instrument invented in the mid-1800s.
"In vintage horns there are lots of design fails and innovations," she said. "In the New Haven shop, an old Buffett sax came in, and it was missing the lowest note. It was just not made to have the lowest note, it wasn't long enough. This was completely surprising! It was fun to hold an instrument that's part of the evolution of the sax," said Friend.
Another sax surprise was when a young client brought in their instrument, complaining that it just was not working. Friend found out why: a combination lock that the kid kept in the saxophone's case slipped inside the instrument.
A much-older client got a bow-tie stuck in their saxophone.
"I find funny things in horns," said Friend, "including things resulting in people's attempts at making them play in a pinch if they're broken."
Friend asserts she has not found a mouse in a horn, but she knows someone who did.
Dead rodents aren't the only ick-hazard.
"Horns can be gross," said Friend. "You're breathing into them. If you have a delicious snack, play, and don't scrub out your horn, that stuff gets stuck in there. This is why, in the sax, the E-flat pad is called the 'gutter pad.' The E-flat key stays shut and is in the bend. Stuff collects. It can be the grossest pad."
Most often, her work entails remedying the usual problem of a player's instrument simply not sounding right. Or having no sound at all.
"These problems arise for many reasons, but most commonly when the natural materials such as cork, felt, and leather wear out or become brittle or compressed over time," Friend explained. "Then there are the steel rods and screws which need to be cared for."
These instruments "need regular maintenance and lubrication," Friend pointed out.
"What is it, change your oil every 5,000 miles?" she said. "Well, bring your horn in every year for a tune up; sooner, if you think it's not playing right!"
JF Woodwind Repair fixes and services all manner of flutes, clarinets, saxophones, oboes, and bassoons in its location at 22 High St. in Brattleboro. Repairs are by appointment only. Visit jfwoodwindrepair.com, or call 802-490-5815.
This News item by Wendy M. Levy was written for The Commons.