 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2023-08-16 07:44
Sol Yaged was such a great character. I loved getting to hear him play, and love hearing the stories from others who interacted with him.
I'm curious whether anyone here on the bboard has any such stories they'd be willing to share.
I posted it before, so I'll just give a brief example of one of my "Sol" stories to get things started:
My first time meeting Sol (at the old Il Valentino in NYC before it closed down - back when it was at 330E 56th Street)...he introduced himself, and asked us where we were from. When I told him, he said, "Really?! I've been there!"
Shocked, I asked, "Really?!"
"Yes!" he replied, "I spent the longest week of my life there one night!"
We chuckled as he handed us his business card and he went on to the next table.
Then, after the break, he introduced us to the crowd as "his good friends" - and then lied to everyone - telling them it was our anniversary. He had us stand up to loud applause as he padded our resume with more lies - and then chatted with us (back and forth across the room for all to hear) as if we had truly been old friends (a ruse that was extremely embarrassing for us, but which provided a lot of mirth to the everyone in attendance - and made a great memory for us.)
Of course, Sol played clarinet beautifully, but I think I admired his showmanship/character almost as much as his exceptional playing.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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Author: A Brady
Date: 2023-08-16 23:04
I may have posted this before.
Around 25 years ago, I played a gig at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC with the Benny Goodman Tribute band led by Everett Longstreth, with me playing the Benny solos.
The guest of honor was Steve Allen, with Steve talking and playing piano, including playing some of his songs he had written. Steve, of course, had played Benny in the movie “The Benny Goodman Story” back in the 50s, and Sol Yaged had been his clarinet coach, so he could realistically mime playing Bennys music
(Benny himself provided the playing for the film.)
Sol was there that night, and had some great stories to tell about the production of the film. He was playing along with the big band on a couple of charts, and asked me to assist him in his entrances, as reading was not his strong suit.
He actually asked me to come by his steady gig on Monday nights in the city to sit in (can’t remember the venue), which I sadly never got around to doing.
He sounded great that night, and was a real character, but a good guy.
Steve was also fun to spend some time with!
Fuzzy wrote:
> Sol Yaged was such a great character. I loved getting to hear
> him play, and love hearing the stories from others who
> interacted with him.
>
> I'm curious whether anyone here on the bboard has any such
> stories they'd be willing to share.
>
> I posted it before, so I'll just give a brief example of one of
> my "Sol" stories to get things started:
>
> My first time meeting Sol (at the old Il Valentino in NYC
> before it closed down - back when it was at 330E 56th
> Street)...he introduced himself, and asked us where we were
> from. When I told him, he said, "Really?! I've been there!"
>
> Shocked, I asked, "Really?!"
>
> "Yes!" he replied, "I spent the longest week of my life there
> one night!"
>
> We chuckled as he handed us his business card and he went on to
> the next table.
>
> Then, after the break, he introduced us to the crowd as "his
> good friends" - and then lied to everyone - telling them it was
> our anniversary. He had us stand up to loud applause as he
> padded our resume with more lies - and then chatted with us
> (back and forth across the room for all to hear) as if we had
> truly been old friends (a ruse that was extremely embarrassing
> for us, but which provided a lot of mirth to the everyone in
> attendance - and made a great memory for us.)
>
> Of course, Sol played clarinet beautifully, but I think I
> admired his showmanship/character almost as much as his
> exceptional playing.
>
> Fuzzy
> ;^)>>>
AB
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