Unbelievable group
Lalo Schifrin tells the following story about a Jazz at the Philharmonic
concert in Amsterdam.
“I was on piano with Jo Jones (drums) and Art Davis (bass). The soloists
were Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Canonball Adderley, Stan Getz, J.
J. Johnson, John Coltrane, Don Byas, Roy Eldridge, Nat Adderley and Dizzy
Gillespie. It was an unbelievable group.
“Coleman Hawkins called the tune. It was Indiana. Everybody played a
solo. There was the ritual of the drum solo by Jo Jones. Finally we got
to the endingwith the usual long, long chord. Jo Jones was all over
his cymbals, tomtoms etc. Everyone was indulging in the usual florid
ad libs. Dizzy and Roy Eldridge were fighting to see who could hit the
highest note. (I think Roy Eldridge won.) Finally there was a cutoff.
“Backstage Roy Eldridge said to the bass player Art Davis: ‘There are
so many notes in one chord. Why did you have to pick my note?’”
From Howard Lucraft
Squawk of Glory
...On this final concert I was booked to play with a
ten-piece group, about six numbers, the first one being String of Pearls.
I hadn't played for years. Both my flugelhorn and trumpet were purchased
from the PX back in the 1960s when I was on a German tour with Shirley
Bassey. Ronnie Stephenson had booked the band and we had Herb Geller,
Bobby Burgess, Sal Nistico, Heinz von Hermann, Jiggs Whigham, Shake Keane
and a few other heavies in there. One of the trumpet players was a teacher
in the American camp in Munich, so he got me the instruments cheap. The
trumpet is a Schilke, same model Bill Chase used to have. Over the years
the tuning slide has got jammed several times and I once pulled the whole
trumpet in half trying to free it. My brother-in-law, who built his own
house with his bare hands, and who knows nothing about trumpets, soldered
it together again. Good as new.
In String of Pearls I usually do a long gliss up to the first note of
the intro. The valve I use to do this, number three, stuck halfway down
on the concert, thereby stopping any sound coming out of the horn. There
was a bit of a squawk from the side of my mouth and that was it. After
all these years I was going out in a squawk of glory.
With a little bit of luck and some quite considerable brute force I managed
to get the valve going again. Now warned, the remainder of my offerings
went by without mishap, including the famous Butterfield solo. The trouble
stemmed from the fact that I no longer possessed any valve oil. When you
are almost 75 years of age you don't go out buying bottles of valve oil.
A couple of girls were singing Rum and Coca Cola - you know the one -
Working for the Yankee dollaaaaaaaar..... Every time they finished the
chorus I came in with some very natty high-note Latin stuff for eight
bars. There was no music for this one and I kept getting the feeling that
the rhythm were in a different key, but the pianist, who was right beside
me, assured me that everything was OK. I even got congratulated afterwards
on my performance. It was only afterwards that I realised that everything
I'd played was in the key of C concert, while the rest of them were playing
in G. No one noticed.
From Ron Simmonds
Nobody's Human (Johnny
Griffin)
And now, here's a quote from author and novellist Dean Koontz.
Human beings can always be relied upon to assert, with vigour, their
God-given right to be stupid.
Er...what was that again...?
A couple of years ago Peter Herbolzheimer invited me to Stuttgart to
hear his new BuJazzO youth band. I've gone a bit deaf over the years,
so, although I had a seat in the front row, right before him, he spoke
so quietly into the microphone that I couldn't make out anything he said.
About halfway through the concert he muttered away for a moment and I
heard the audience break into applause. He looked at me and nodded, and
it was then that I realised that he had announced me. I stood up, turned,
smiled, bowed and waved my arms.
Afterwards he said that he had told the people that I had been his first
trumpet player in the Rhythm Combination and Brass for many years.
The next evening there was another concert. Halfway through he went through
the same routine, for me just as inaudibly; the audience began clapping,
he looked at me and nodded. I stood and turned to the audience with a
smile, both arms raised in acknowledgement.
Right behind me Erwin Lehn, the celebrated leader of the Stuttgart Radio
Big Band, was on his feet, bowing and smiling to the ecstatic throng.
(That was the band that recorded my score of MacArthur Park with Bobby
Burgess.)
When I turned back to look at Peter he had a satisfied grin on his face.
I'll get him for that, one day.
Ron Simmonds
Heard on the Jay Leno show
Leno is interviewing a man in the street in Los Angeles.
Leno: What do you do?
Man: I teach in college here.
Leno: What language do they speak in Austria?
Man: Er - Australian?
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