Klarinet Archive - Posting 000233.txt from 2005/12

From: "Ted Casher" <tedcasher@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] pieces that drive you nuts
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:17:05 -0500

Ted Casher here: From the viewpoint of a tenor/clarinet doubler, the one
bigband piece that drives most big band musicians nuts is "In The Mood!"

I finally got to hear the version recorded by Artie Shaw, and it is
drastically different from the one recorded by Glenn Miller. Artie recorded
the original version as written by Joe Garland---it had many more sections
in it, was not so repetitious, and featured an excellent Artie Shaw solo!

But Joe Garland, being an enterprising guy, brought it to Glenn Miller, who
then proceeded to drastically edit it.

The subsequent recording created an incubus upon the whole big band
business, forevermore!!!!!

I estimate that, throughout a 55-year career of getting paid to make music,
I have played "In The Mood" nearly 11,000 times! One of the hazards of
playing either tenor part, if properly fingered, is that after many years,
the bis key will become loose and break off!

This happened to me! I had to make a quick trip in to Emilio Lyons at
Rayburn Music! Emilio proceeded to take silver solder and reattach the bis
key!

Another thing to make us nuts!

One night, I was playing jazz tenor/clarinet with Duke Belaire's Monday
night band at Bovi's Town Tavern, in Providence, RI, when a pretty young
lady came up to me and asked, "Can you play In The Mood when you get back on
the stand?

I then proceeded to reply" "YOUNG LADY, YOU HAVE JUST MADE THE BIGGEST
LAPSE IN ETIQUETTE POSSIBLE, WHEN MAKING A REQUEST OF A MONDAY NIGHT BAND!
YOU CAN MAKE THIS REQUEST ON A FRIDAY OR SATURDAY NIGHT, AND IT WILL BE
REASONABLE. BUT WHEN YOU ARE LISTENING TO A GROUP OF MUSICIANS PLAY BIG
BAND JAZZ FOR SMALL MONEY, ON A MONDAY NIGHT, BECAUSE THEY LOVE IT, TO
REQUEST "IN THE MOOD IS A FAUX PAS AS BAD AS PICKING YOUR NOSE IN PUBLIC AND
THEN INGESTING THE PRODUCT!"

Methinks I frightened the poor young thing, because she went back to her
table, clipboard in hand, bearing a scared look!

She was probably a History of Jazz student on a field trip, coming from one
of the many universities that dot the landscape. Those who are among the
cognoscenti, as it were, would never make such a lapse in polite conduct!

I used to love to scare people! But now that my beard has turned white, I
don't scare anybody any more. Nobody is afraid of Santa Claus!

I wish all my fellow klarinet-org colleagues a happy 2006! May we all get
lots of work, may the clarinets refrain from cracking, and may all the reeds
be good ones!

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