Everybody loves Ray

For the 40th year in a row, Ray Novack and his band will cap off Beverly Homecoming

If you’re looking for the most Beverly of Beverly things — and I mean that in a good way — you’ve got to be at Lynch Park on Sunday for the final day of Homecoming.

I’m not talking about the fireworks. I’m talking about Ray Novack and his band.

For the last 40 years or so, Ray Novack and Horizon — now Horizon and the Horns — has been the final musical act of Homecoming at Lynch Park. We’re talking songs like “Beginnings” by Chicago, “All Night Long” by Lionel Ritchie, “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift.

But the real story of Ray Novack goes back even further. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he has been the premier musical figure in Beverly for the last half-century.

So I sat down for a coffee with Ray earlier this week to talk about his career, what keeps him going, and how, at age 70, he still plays pickup basketball three times a week (jealous!).

Ray’s music journey actually starts in Malden, where he grew up. Every night after dinner, his mother would say, “Raymond, you have to get out the accordion and practice for half an hour.”

In the fall of 1973, Ray and three other Malden High School graduates formed a band called Horizon. Their first paying gig was at a local club on New Year’s Eve.

“I got 50 bucks,” Ray told me when I did a story on him for The Salem News back in 2012. “I couldn’t believe it. It hit me between the eyes that this is what I wanted to do.”

In 1977, at the age of 22, Ray was hired as the band director at Beverly High School. For the next 35 years, he taught thousands of Beverly kids who played in the concert band, jazz band, string ensemble and/or pit band or took his History of Rock and Guitar classes.

You could argue that being the band director at the high school is one of the most visible jobs in the city. You’d see Ray leading the marching band in parades down Cabot Street, at halftime of football games at Hurd Stadium, at performances in the high school auditorium. I remember attending an elementary school performance at the high school when my daughter was playing the flute and in walked Ray Novack, wearing his baseball umpire uniform, having just arrived from a game. He smiled to the crowd, sat down at the piano and started playing.

The kind of impact that someone like Ray Novack has made on the community is impossible to measure. But you know it’s been significant based on all of the connections he still maintains with former students and band parents. When I was meeting with him at the Dunkin’ Donuts in North Beverly, a woman walked in and, of course, knew Ray. Her daughter had been one of his drum majors and went on to become a high school choral director. When she got married, guess who she hired to play her wedding reception?

And guess what Ray is doing this Friday and Saturday, before Sunday’s Homecoming gig? He’s playing at the weddings of two of his former students. And not to take this too far, but even the guy Ray matches up against in his pickup basketball games is one of his former drum majors, Dave Macdonald (now Dr. Dave Macdonald).

You might have figured out by now that Ray’s band includes several of his former students — Jack Pickell (Class of 1982), Brian Price (Class of 2000), Nick Consone (Class of 2003). There’s even a former band parent, Bill Beckman.

There’s also Kelly Lauranzano (Class of 2001). She happens to be Ray’s daughter. Kelly joined Horizon about 15 years ago, the same time the band’s name was changed to Horizon and the Horns. Kelly is the lead singer and also plays trumpet.

“I was living at home at the time and my dad said, ‘What would you think of singing in the band?’” Kelly told me. “I sang my whole life growing up with him as my music teacher, so I said, ‘Oh, sure.’ Then he said, ‘You also have to play trumpet.’ I hadn’t played trumpet since high school. He really wanted to focus on the horn side, and that was exciting. I hadn’t really had a creative outlet since college so I was really excited to join. My dad and I have a great relationship and we really work well together.”

Ray said the addition of Kelly and Nick Consone, who plays guitar and sings, “breathed new life in the band.” The band ranges from four to seven players, including up to four horn players. Ray plays keyboards. He can play 11 instruments in all, a versatility he attributes to his mother’s insistence on those nightly accordion practices.

“I’m happy to sit back and call out the tunes and let everybody shine,” he said.

It’s that type of equanimity that has kept the band going all these years, according to Joe Randazzo, a drummer for Horizon. He should know. Randazzo was one of those Malden High pals who teamed up with Ray to form Horizon all those years ago.

“I’ve been in many other bands, and they’re always a mess when it comes to personalities and conflicts and egos,” Randazzo said. “There isn’t any of that in Horizon. Everyone gets along so well. It flows down from Ray and how he treats people. That’s why it stayed together for so long.”

Horizon and the Horns does about 30 to 40 gigs per year. Ray also performs solo at assisted living communities, and is in his 15th year as band director at the Glen Urquhart School in Beverly. He’s been married to his wife, Kathy, for 44 years, and they have three grandchildren. Their other daughter, Erica Harrington, also occasionally sings with Horizon.

So in case you’ve lost track, Horizon has been around in one form or another for 53 years now. The one constant is Ray Novack. He’ll be at Lynch Park on Sunday night at 6:30, just before the fireworks.