The Coastal Communities Concert Band will celebrate its 24th anniversary this weekend with a salute to one of the instruments that symbolizes the big-band era, as well as one of its longtime purveyors.

Trombonist Bill Tole, bandleader of the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and onetime member of the Tommy Dorsey Band, will join the North County orchestra for a concert that will include "A Trombone Chronology," a musical piece arranged by Floyd Werle that demonstrates the historic legacy of the popular big-band instrument. Tole has been a fixture on the big-band scene for a half-century.

Raised in Pittsburgh, Tole came from a musical family. His father was a high school band director, a trombonist and pianist, and his mother was a pianist and choir accompanist. His sister, Nancy, is a singer (who performs with Tole as vocalist for the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra), and his brother, Gary, is a studio musician in Los Angeles.

After earning a degree in music from Duquesne University in the 1950s, Tole toured the United States with the Tommy Dorsey Band, and later spent four years with the Air Force dance band as first trombonist and assistant bandleader. After serving a stint in the military, he moved to New York in the mid-1960s and performed in nightclubs, on Broadway and as a studio musician. In 1967, he followed the music recording industry out to Los Angeles, and on the West Coast he has played with bandleaders that included Ray Anthony, Tex Beneke, Louis Bellson, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Harry James, Quincy Jones, Nelson Riddle and Si Zentner. Among the singers he has worked with over the years are Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey and Tony Martin. In recent years, Tole has toured the country as bandleader for the Jimmy Dorsey band. While Tole's in town this weekend, he will also present a free trombone clinic/master class for aspiring musicians at Oak Crest Middle School in Encinitas. Admission to the clinic, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at 675 Balour St., is free but seating is limited. Call (760) 489-2383 for information.

The Feb. 25 concert will also feature Tole performing Marvin Hamlisch's "Through the Eyes of Love." And the band will perform Alfred Reed's "El Camino Real," John Tatgenhorst's "Latin Celebration," Leonard Bernstein's "Danzon" (from the ballet "Fancy Free"), Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No. 8, Warren Barker's arrangement of "Bricusse and Newley on Broadway," and two arrangements by Carlsbad's Sammy Nestico, "American Spice" and "Reflective Mood."

Coastal Communities Concert Band 24th Anniversary Concert

When: 2:30 p.m. Feb. 25

Where: Carlsbad Community Church, Jefferson and Pine streets, Carlsbad

Tickets: $15, general; $12, seniors and students

Info: (760) 436-6137, (760) 489-2383