Homogenous sounding orchestras are actually going to be the death of the orchestras. I would rather hear someone have a psychotic event during a concert.
When Tony Bennett and I (John Bunch) heard you warming up, we thought we had made the biggest mistake of our lives!
Someone asked David Baker in an improv class if he thought any of us would make it in New York. David answered . . . make it in New York? Just find a way to stay in New York.
Having real musicians and real orchestras is part of bringing the human experience to the theater. You want to go to a baseball game and see a pitching machine that can be turned up fast enough to strike everybody out? What kind of human experience is that?? It’s NOTHING!
We started playing brass instruments very young. I think it was mostly from our curiosity of the shiny metal objects in the forbidden room.
We’re always going to be on the brink of disaster, that’s just the way the music business is. I believe it will always find a way, because music is part of being human.
Musically, playing with Frank Sinatra might still be the highlight of my life.
After Woody’s band, I moved to Hawaii and that’s when I first met Jerry Hey. That’s when Jerry used to work for me . . . for a lot less money, I might add.
I’ve played my 46th score for John Williams as first trumpet. Most recent was the last Indiana Jones movie. The first was The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing in 1973 with Burt Reynolds.
John Belushi told me he was going to make me the most famous trombone player since Jimmy Dorsey. I didn’t have the heart to tell him Jimmy was the saxophone player.
