Nelson William Knode, a trumpeter who led a swing orchestra and was known as the music man of Catonsville, died of respiratory failure Tuesday at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 88 and lived in Relay.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Fulton Avenue, he credited his parents with getting him into a life of music.
"I'll tell you what kind of people they were," he said in a 1982 Sun article. "My dad was laid off by the B&O Railroad when I was 8 or 9 years old. It was right around Christmastime, and we didn't have two pennies to rub together. We were downtown one day, my mom and dad and I, and we passed the Peabody music store on Howard Street, and there was a trumpet in the window on sale for $32.50."
A salesman knew his father and let him take the trumpet with the promise to pay later.
Going home on a streetcar that day, Mr. Knode heard his father humming "Coming Through the Rye."
"I took the trumpet out and played it note for note later in the day," he said "You should have seen my father's face. You could have knocked him over with a feather."
As a child living in West Baltimore, he recalled hearing music being played at nightspots such as the old Astoria on Edmondson Avenue. There he heard Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millender's Band. He said he never forgot the experience of hearing the Alabama-born musician who played in Chicago and Harlem during the early 1930s.
Mr. Knode played his trumpet in the Evening Sun Newsboys Band and studied with teachers Michelangelo Francisco Converso and Edwin Franko Goldman at the Peabody Conservatory, where he won a scholarship. Mr. Knode went on to perform under maestro Reginald Stewart in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, He also joined the house orchestras at the old State, Stanley and Keith theaters.
During World War II he was a toolmaker at the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River. He formed the Nelson Knode Orchestra featuring a singing group, the Martinaires, which he modeled after the Modernaires, a popular 1940s ensemble associated with Glenn Miller's orchestra.
Mr. Knode formed a trio that serenaded diners at the old Pimlico Hotel on Park Heights Avenue. He also joined the Baltimore Park Band and played outdoor concerts during summers at pavilions at Druid Hill, Clifton and Riverside parks. In later years, he played at events at the Flag House, Fort McHenry and the 1976 Tall Ships visit. He taught trumpet at the McDonogh School and in 1982 published "The Bugler's Handbook," which remains in print.
In 1960, as traditional dance orchestras' popularity faded, he opened the Knode's Music Centre on Frederick Road in Catonsville. He taught, sold instruments and over the years became known as the music man of Catonsville.
"He was way ahead of his time, particularly with world music. He introduced music of cultures other than Western European," said Jim Wharton, chairman of the music department at Catonsville High School.
Mr. Knode was honored as the grand marshal of the Catonsville Fourth of July Parade in recognition of his contributions to his neighborhood.
"Children who played in school bands would come in the shop with a broken instrument," said his son, Emory Knode, who now runs the business, known as the Appalachian Bluegrass Music Shoppe. "He'd fix their horn and then play something on it. Their eyes would light up."
Mr. Knode became well known along the Frederick Road business corridor in Catonsville.
"If he saw someone that he knew at the traffic light in front of his place of business, he would open the door and play the "William Tell Overture" for them," said his son." He was still playing his trumpet until the end of his life."
In the 1980s, Mr. Knode assembled a 14-piece orchestra to reproduce the popular music of the 1940s. He insisted that his group play the arrangements made popular by Duke Ellington, Charlie Spivak and Benny Goodman.
About 40 years ago, Mr. Knode went to Japan to study karate for three months and earned a black belt there. He later taught karate-do for self-defense and karate-do at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the Community College of Baltimore County and Catonsville Rec & Parks. In a 1976 Sun article, he said his karate training "opens a different outlook on one's being. Man is small in the universe."
Services were held Friday at Faith Bible Church in Elkridge. His funeral was accompanied with trumpets playing "A Closer Walk with Thee," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "The St. James Infirmary Blues."
In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of 64 years, the former Audrey Irene Lynch; two daughters, Carol Olson of Catonsville and Beth Valentine of Waynesboro, Pa.; and six grandchildren.