String Bands Transplant the Music in Southern Soil
When the 10 Mummers fancy brigades marched on Olde New Jersey Avenue for the 21st year on Saturday, June 13, routing them on their colorful journey was a man who has found a way to be a Mummer from January to December even when it snows and the temperature dips uncomfortably.
Joe “Joe Q” Quattrone, the entertainment coordinator for the city of North Wildwood, has been a Mummer for 61 years, starting as a 13 year old when he showed up in South Philadelphia with his guitar. No good, said a representative of the Fralinger String Band. He had nothing against guitars, the official told Quattrone, but they are too quiet for string bands. Try a banjo instead. They’re from the same family as the guitar and make happy and louder joyous music that encourages the Mummers strut.
So Quattrone switched instruments and a new and long standing relationship was born.