The Garbage-Men is an American musical group of youths from

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

, Florida teaching sustainability through music. The band promotes recycling, a green eco-friendly message, by playing music on instruments they make from garbage and recycled materials. The Garbage-Men perform their instrumental interpretations of classic hits for audiences large and small at various venues including street festivals, science museums, and charity events. They can often be seen busking on street corners, including a show in Times Square, NYC. The band has appeared on America's Got Talent, CNN, NPR's Science Friday, TIME Magazine for Kids, The Blue Man Group's Invent an Instrument Contest, and PBS Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins], the latter of which received an Suncoast Chapter, Emmy. The band is also referenced in the paperback edition of ''Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash'' by Pulitzer Prize–winning author
Edward Humes
They have volunteered to perform and help charitable non-profit organizations such as The New York Hall of Science, The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Giving Hunger The Blues, Sarasota County Public Library,

Mote Marine Laboratory Mote Marine Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit, marine research organization based on City Island in Sarasota, Florida, with additional campuses in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande, Florida, and the Florida Keys. Founded in 1955 by Eug ...

, The Museum of Science and Industry, The

South Florida Museum __NOTOC__ The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature (formerly the South Florida Museum), located in Bradenton, Florida, is a natural history museum specializing in the history of Florida's gulf coast. It houses exhibits highlighting Florida histor ...

, The

Orlando Science Center The Orlando Science Center (OSC) is a private science museum located in Orlando, Florida. Its purposes are to provide experience-based opportunities for learning about science and technology and to promote public understanding of science. The O ...

, Mayors' Feed the Hungry Program, Mothers Helping Mothers, WMNF and WSRQ community radio, and others. The band donates 100% of the proceeds from the sale of their CD to

Heifer International Heifer International (also known as Heifer Project International) is a global nonprofit working to eradicate poverty and hunger through sustainable, values-based holistic community development. Heifer International distributes animals, along wit ...

and other charities. The band was founded in 2010 by Ollie Gray and Jack Berry.

Personnel

* Jack Berry - Guitar * Ollie Gray - Drums * Harrison Paparatto - Trombone, bugle, saxophone, violin, clarinet * Austin Siegel - Chromatic percussion * Evan Tucker - Bass guitar * David Berry (American musician) - Manager/Driver

Instruments

All instruments are constructed from every day items found in the trash or recycle bin.

Strings

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

- The electric guitar is a 1-stringed, plucked string instrument featuring a cereal box body, yard stick neck, bottle cap pick-up, lipstick bottle bridge, tooth pick frets, and shoelace strap. It is the lead instrument and is used to play melodies.

Electric Bass Guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and sc ...

- The electric bass guitar is a 1-stringed, fretless bass featuring a cereal box body, yard stick neck, comb bridge, soda can thumb rest, and duck tape strap. Occasionally the upright bass is used in place of the electric bass for songs that require a more jazz-like feel. It is made from a wooden box and a PVC pipe.

Electric Violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

- The electric violin is a 1-stringed chordophone played with a shoe horn bow and made from a cereal box body, paint stick neck, clothespin bridge, and cassette tape tailpiece. It plays harmonies and leads.

Winds

Trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

- The trombone is made from re-purposed PVC pipe and an oil funnel bell. It uses a slide made from PVC and a mouthpiece made from a bottle. E♭ Contrabass Bugle - The bugle is made from re-purposed PVC pipe and a traffic cone for the bell. It is limited to notes within the harmonic series because the embouchure controls the pitch.

Flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

- The flute is made from a small section of PVC pipe with drilled holes to play an E♭ pentatonic scale. It is keyless.

Alto Saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

- The saxophone is a keyless aerophone with holes drilled to play an E♭ pentatonic scale. It uses a Corn popper toy for the body, a balloon for the reed, and a medicine bottle ligature. A recent addition is a microphone made from an ear bud.

Contra-alto Clarinet The contra-alto clarinet, E♭ contrabass clarinet, is a large clarinet pitched a perfect fifth below the B♭ bass clarinet. It is a transposing instrument in E♭ sounding an octave and a major sixth below its written pitch, between the ...

- The clarinet plays chromatically in the key of E♭. It features a re-purposed PVC pipe body, bottle cap keys, and a balloon reed.

Percussion

Drum kit A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...

- The drums include various items found in the garbage. The kit features a paint bucket snare, water jug toms, compost bin bass drum, metal trash can lid cymbals, tin can cowbell, and a porcelain bowl gong. The drum kit is used to keep time and fill empty measures. Chromatic Percussion - The glass bottle idiophone is made from recycled glass bottles and uses tooth brush mallets. It can play chords and melodies.

Awards

The Garbage-Men have won several awards for their benevolent efforts throughout the community and the world, including Heifer International Pass on the Gift, The City of

, The Sarasota County Commission, the Keep Sarasota County Beautiful environmental organization, and their WEDU segment won an Emmy from the

National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...

References

External links

Official Website

Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garbage Men, The Musical quintets from Florida American instrumental musical groups Musical groups established in 2010 American buskers American performance artists 2010 establishments in Florida Musicians from Sarasota, Florida