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Wolverines Classic
Jazz Orchestra Scotties
On Seventh; Minneapolis, MN 1977
**Context**
Important to know about this
gig:
Last Night at Scottie’s on
Seventh
I
can’t remember the reason, but my
regular Tenor Sax player couldn’t make this gig so I asked a seasoned professional,
Harry Peterson, to take that chair.
Harry
was one of those cats we all
looked up to—he’d paid his dues re: practicing/woodshedding, etc. = his playing
level was Upper Shelf and we wouldn’t normally have someone of his caliber as a
regular player; but, for Special Events, I’d try to get a Special Guest and
Harry was available and willing (the word on the street about Ted’s CJO Book
[book of arrangements] was it’s the Toughest Book in Town) to take up the
challenges.
Besides
all the Tenor Chair stuff,
I also gave Harry some Lead Alto stuff, too (to take the pressure off of myself
as Lead Alto guy—I just didn’t have accurate chops for some of the fast
stuff). Therefore, e.g., Harry does Alto
Sax on “San” and “Some Of These Days”.
All
of the Harry stuff (playing)
reminds me of a guy named Wally Selmonson from Fargo, ND. We had a Road Gig
on a Saturday and I hired
Eddie Berger to play the Clarinet Chair (very challenging stuff, but Eddie was
a good Faker/Reader and I figured he could wade through it all well enough if I
got copies of some of the charts to him ahead of time to study), but when we
came by Eddie’s apartment to pick him up we found a note on the door saying
he’d had something of a kidney failure and went to the Emergency Room at the
hospital downtown… What do we do?
There’s no one else here in town who will
throw themselves into a Never-Saw-These-Charts-Before road gig like this (I
tried several guys to no avail). So, I
call the Musicians’ Union of Fargo/Moorhead (twin towns) and ask if they know
of someone who could sight-read Flyspeck, Chicken Scratches Clarinet Charts
(some of the handwritten calligraphy was barely readable—you had to be very
familiar with them to make sense out of them).
“Try Wally Selmonson.” They give
me his # and he’s home! And he’ll do
it! “Sure, I’ll give it a crack.”
We
arrive several hours before the
gig and Wally’s there, waiting for us. I
show him the Book and he says, “Oh, yeah, Circus Charts! I played the
Circus for awhile, sure, Barely
Readable Charts—I’ll just listen for chord changes and try to follow the Basic
Contours of what’s written on the page.”
I’m thinking: “Contours?
Yeah, but… how do you do that?”…
Well,
he really Did It! Ensemble parts;
note-for-note solos = they weren’t exactly as written, but Great Faking! It’s
one of the Most Memorable Moments of my
musical career—I never realized a musician could be so well versed that he
could Fake a Chair and still make it sound Right.
That’s
what Harry also did for us
this Last Night At Scotties. It’s the
only gig he ever did with us. Later,
Harry’s then-wife Michelle Peterson became featured vocalist for the band. Harry
went to Europe not long after that and
has been principal chair 1st Tenor Sax with the Frankfurt Radio Big
Band for many years. It was our Treat to
have him that one night.
01. Suspense Theater Theme
Suspense_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Stockholm Stomp_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Aunt Hagar's_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Swamp Blues_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Wildflower Rag_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
San-Noone_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Hot Mustard_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Henderson Stomp_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Get Cannibal_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Alabamy Bound_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
11. Shakin' That African'
Shakin' African'_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Hop Off_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Untouchables_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
Nothing Like You_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
15. Some Of These Days - Walk Off
Some Days_WCJO_Scotties_MP3
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