Klarinet Archive - Posting 000479.txt from 2002/01

From: Janine <janine@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Taking Up Clarinet Again--Wondering If Anyone Here Knew My Father (Phil
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 20:10:09 -0500

Hi folks,

Joined this list a few weeks ago, & have greatly enjoyed reading all of the mail
from such a diverse group!

I play a little guitar & piano (& keyboards), but recently decided to take up
the clarinet again. I played clarinet all through Jr. High & High School (a long
time ago!) in the orchestra & band--was 2nd clarinet--didn't really want to be
first...never was comfortable doing solos!!!

My father (Phil Olivella) played clarinet (& sax) w/many of the big band
orchestras--Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, etc. Later played in many of
the small Greenwich Village clubs, in various bands & headlining as a soloist .
In the '50's he played live every morning w/a small band on the Jack Sterling
Show (CBS radio). Was then hired as a CBS TV staff musician--played with The
Gary Moore Show, Jimmy Dean Show, & Ed Sullivan Show orchestras. (If anyone here
remembers the Jimmy Dean 1957 Christmas special, I was the terrified 4 year old
sitting on Jimmy's lap as he read the staff kids a Christmas Story--made a total
fool out of myself, & have never lived it down!!! LOL) But going to stuff like
this was *so* much fun, & I so appreciate having had the opportunity.

Some of my fondest memories are from my childhood when I would go to work w/my
father--watching him & the orchestra play, observing all of the behind the
scenes stuff, meeting famous folks, etc. It's a shame I was too young to really
appreciate it. It was exciting then, but it was just "what my father did".

My dad also did numerous recording & club dates throughout the decades, as well
as continuing to appear w/various orchestras, including TV show & theater
orchestras. One gig I fondly remember was w/The Ed Joyce's Dixieland Show at
Freedomland (a Disneyland type park in NY that I loved!!!) from '63-'64, as I
got to go to many of these shows. The orchestra also backed up many artists
appearing at the park, including Paul Anka, whom I got to meet! (Hey, that was a
big thrill for a 10 year old!) Here's a link if interested, listing some of the
other guys in the band...scroll down to the middle:

http://www.google.com/search?q@-----.html+phil+olivella&hl=en

I have a few of his session recordings on tape (very poor quality). I had a
couple of records, but they were lost during a move. I had given up on anything
ever appearing on CD. However, I was ecstatic to find that 5 CD's have been
released that he plays on:

http://artistinfo.spinner.com/cg/x.dll?UID=12:01:27|AM&ot=Windows&pt=1&spu=F&ug=1&fn=null&p=spinner&sql=1:111136

Clicking on the individual titles will bring up detailed info. (The drum listing
is obviously a mistake!)

Doing a search, I also found the following paragraph at this link (scroll
down--his name is highlighted):

http://www.google.com/search?q@-----.net/++"phil+olivella"&hl=en

> FB:VIS/iv/13/7 rev. of BG/75,122; 11 January 1947; Personnel of Vaughn Monroe Orchestra with South
> Read: Vaughn, not Vaughan. Garrod & Korst, Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra, 1940–1954 (Zephyrhills, FL,
> 1986) does not give this session but gives Monroe personnel New York 15 October 1946 and Hollywood 13
> February 1947, the latter date after but closer to the South New York session. Monroe’s orchestra was a > travelling
> orchestra. It is not known whether known personnel changes took place before or during the Hollywood > residency;
> some changes noted [LA] were still with the orchestra later in 1947 in Chicago and New York: Eddie South >(vn),
> Hank Jones (pn), Leonard Gaskin (sb) with Vaughn Monroe Orchestra: Frank Ryerson (tp, ar), James Messina,
> Richard Lasala, Fred Taylor & Ed Shedowsky [NY] or Sal Gianetina [LA] (tp), Sam Hyster, Bill Mustard, Joseph
> Conigliaro, Joseph Bennett (tb), Andy Bagni, Phil Olivella [NY] or Louis Feldman [LA] (as), Ziggy Talent, > John
> West [NY] or Vito Marasco [LA] (ts), Maurice Ancher, Edmund Braghittoni, Sam Caplan, Seymour Berman, Irving
> Raymond (vn), John Pastore [NY] or Eduardo Sodero [LA] (ce), Michael Shelby (pn), John Bucky Pizzarelli (gt),
> Jack Fay (sb), Edward Julian (dm), Vaughn Monroe, Moon Maids: Kathyrn Katie Myatt, Hilda Tinker
> Cunningham, Arlene Truax, Mary Joe Thomas, Mary Lee [NY] or Mahree Ahm [LA] [?same] (vc)

Would love to hear from anyone knowing of him, or anyone who may have played
w/him, or anyone with any additional info. I never thought that anything would
be listed about him on the Net, so I was quite surprised to find these links
when doing a search a few days ago!!

He passed away in '95, & I inherited his instruments, including 3 Buffet
clarinets--tracing the serial #'s, they appear to be from 1936, 1954, 1966. I
know that the '66 has to be an R-13, but how do you determine the model of older
clarinets that have no model name? I would like to eventually have all of these
reconditioned--they are not presently playable--pads in terrible shape, etc. Am
going to try to do it myself to save on costs (after carefully reading as much
as possible on the subject). I did do some work on clarinets w/my father, so I'm
not totally working in the dark here! Anyway, wondering which of these to start
on--any ideas? I guess no one could really give me any advice w/o seeing/playing
these, but my choice would be to fix up the '66 R-13 first.

My father always had tons of clarinets around. He taught, as well as repaired.
He was always giving me his latest "find" to play...an old Conn, Selmer, Buffet.
I never used a student clarinet in school, but he had tons of them around, as he
sold them to his students. I liked playing around on the new student models
(hey, they were shiny, unlike mine!!), & really thought they were surprisingly
good for the money. They were made of ebonite back then--wonder how they compare
to the present plastic ones.

Anyway, I have wanted to get back into the clarinet for some time now...finally
getting around to it! Decided to buy a new instrument, rather than wait until I
got one of these working. I purchased a Yamaha YCL-20, after doing much
research, & am quite pleased w/it. It will serve my purposes for now, I'm
certain, as I am just playing around & relearning. (I would like to try out a
Buffet B-12 & a Vito out of curiosity, just to compare student models.) It will
also be interesting to compare the Yamaha to the old wood Buffets, as I relearn
& progress, & get them working.

Really didn't mean for this to turn out so long, but I had a lot to cover!! I
have much more to ask & write about, but I will continue later in separate msgs,
to keep things simple & to not bore anyone too much!!!!

Thanks for reading!

Janine Olivella

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