Klarinet Archive - Posting 000153.txt from 2008/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Shep Fields (formerly "The spelling of the word:"
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:43:47 -0400

At 04:33 PM 10/28/2008, you wrote:

> > This analysis plus the glorious one I did on "Shep Fields and His Rippling
> > Rhythm" is without charge. In about a year when my book on the gran
> > Partitta is out, that will cost money. So read it for free here or pay for
> > it in the future, at which point the young people of that era will presume
> > that all of us were a bunch of idiots.
> >
>
>I have to say that the whole "Shep Fields" exchange has resulted in an
>unseemly amount of giggling on my part.

Have any of you ever heard Shep Fields' OTHER band? His "Rippling
Rhythm" band really was the stuff of jokes, but for a time in the
40's, he ditched that sound and created an entirely different band,
Shep Fields and his New Music. It consisted of ALL woodwind players
plus rhythm (no brass) doubling on a total of 35 instruments from
piccolo to bass sax, even an alto flute, and TEN clarinets (plus 3
bass clarinets). They made some really nice sounds, but of course,
during the war, it was very difficult to find doubling musicians who
could play the challenging book (and yes, he did employ Sid Ceasar
for a while). Besides, no accounting for taste, folks kept clammering
for his old rippling rhythm sound, so he gave up his musical group in
1947 and made a good living playing rickey-tick instead. According
to George P. Simon, long time Metronome magazine writer and editor,
and author of "The Big Bands":

"For Fields, who died in February, 1981, of a heart attack, his
fondest memories centered about that multi-reed band. With great
pride he noted that famed musical arranger and educator Joseph
Schillinger once described it as 'one of the most colorful bands ever
assembled. And for a guy who had sold corn almost all of his life,
that was certainly my biggest thrill!'"

(See? Fields was in on the joke. He KNEW it was corn, but it was
LUCRATIVE corn, sort of like Kenny G.)

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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