uncle. “It’ll be a nice tie to something in
the past.”
His music also created a link to his
future. “When I think back, I would
say that the best leadership training—
noncombat leadership training—in
the world is being a bandleader. And I
mean that as a band director in junior
high school or on a commercial bandstand where you’ve hired guys—all
of whom are as good or better than
you are, many of whom have led their
own band,” he says. “There is not
a single situation that’s come up
at NAIFA or anywhere else in my
leadership experience that I haven’t
already been familiar with on a
bandstand.”
That career also prepared
Currey for life as an independent
insurance advisor. “It’s kind of
funny. You’re working for other
bandleaders, but you’re not really
an employee most of the time.
You’re kind of an independent
contractor, even though, for all
practical purposes, you’re act-
ing as an employee. Someone
else is calling the tunes and hir-
ing the musicians and all that
kind of stuff; so it’s kind of a
hybrid thing,” he says. “Then
Leading the band
Currey left the school system to give
private music lessons, continuing to develop his own music career. He worked
as a freelance musician and conductor,
specializing in the trombone.
He has half a dozen trombones,
enabling him to pick “the right tool for
the job.” The instrument he used for
solo performances “had warm, honey
sounds” that worked well with piano
accompaniment, and he used other horns
for jazz gigs. “One that I’m playing now
that I really like has got to be 60 years
old.” Made by a man in Burbank, Calif.,
who made only trombones, it is as different from other horns as a Sherman tank
differs from a sports car, he says. Currey
expects to inherit a trombone from an
i
After graduating with a music degree
from Baylor University, Currey returned
to Rockdale to teach. For three years, he
directed a junior high school band and
assisted the high school band director. “I
went to all the Friday night high school
[football] games and most of the practices.
In addition, I went to whatever the games
were with the junior high. There were a lot
of football games. To this day, I’m not as
much into football as I might be, probably
due to some of that,” he says. “I’m into it
enough to get by in polite conversation.”
Tom Currey with his wife, Charlotte; above, the Curreys with
their grandson.
