Sunday, December 21, 2008

Big Band Music of the 40s

Did you all know that Dick and I had a dance band in high school? Played "Big Band" music with a very small band. Glen Miller's "Tuxedo Junction" (with me on the vocal) and "In the Mood", Tommy Dorsey's "Getting Sentimental Over You" etc.etc. Dick on the trumpet, me on trombone, Ed Hawks on clarinet and Jim Quigley on sax (all Paw Paw Avenue types) with Bainbridge's Carol Bujak on piano. We couldn't keep a regular drummer which proved fatal to our ambitions. Although Ed and Jim Quigley were excellent musicians  the Woodruff boys  had a hard time keeping on tune and in rhythm.. Played at high school dances in the gym. Do you know how humiliations are remebered forever while good memories fade? There was this particular piece where I had the "transition" notes to play on my trombone solo and then the rest would rejoin. Why I will never know and never quit cursing myself about it I forgot the notes and instead of faking it, just stopped playing....well the rest of the band also stopped and all the dancers stopped and I am sure I turned scarlet with hundreds of eyes staring at me with that useless trombone poised in air unslid...Ed (our real leader) started playing again as did the rest of the band (including me) and the dancers started shuffling again and there it is, burned forever in my memory. We had one commercial gig, playing in Riverside for some affair which brought in a total of $5. (May 10 2008)

No comments: