Little Piece of Nothing: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

To most people New Year’s Eve means Dick Clark, but before there was Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve, there was Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.

Here’s a look at a New Year’s Eve of the past.

1957-58

Interview with Guy Lombardo 1972

I don’t really like seeing those lists that come out at the end of the year listing everybody who has died in the past year...but I feel that I want to mention some of the musicians that passed on this year.

We lost a lot of good ones, especially in the Blues: David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Hubert Sumlin.

Honeyboy was one of the last of the early Delta bluesmen. Born in 1915, he knew many of the early bluesmen and was friends with Robert Johnson. He was supposedly there the night Johnson was poisoned. He played music and toured up until a month before his death at the age of 96.

Pinetop Perkins, born in 1913, filled the piano seat for Muddy Waters after Otis Spann left. Perkins played with Muddy for a decade before he left to form the Legendary Blues Band which also had another Muddy alumnus, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who also passed away this year.

Willie was one of the drummers for Muddy off and on through the 1960s and 1970s. He left the Muddy Waters bands and formed the Legendary Blues Band with other members of Muddy’s band including Pinetop Perkins. Along with the drums, Willie also played harmonica.

Hubert Sumlin was not the first guitar player for Howlin’ Wolf, but he played with Wolf the longest, and was the best known. Hubert played on most of Wolf’s hits and was a big influence on a lot of the British “Blues” guitarists.

Honeyboy playing Sweet Home Chicago

Honeyboy and Hubert Sumlin

Hubert playing with Howlin’ Wolf - Smokestack lightning

Hubert and Wolf again, (just because I’m a big fan)

Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes: Smith

In the Ukulele world, we lost Bill Tapia who had started playing music at the age of 10, in 1918. Although he didn’t record an album until 2004, in his long career he had played with such artists as Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Sol Ho’opi’i , and King Bennie Nawahi

Bill Tapia – Young at Heart

Bill Tapia – Crazy

Other people we lost this year, Don Kirshner, Clarence Clemons, Ceseria Evora, Eddie Kirkland, George Shearing, Gary Moore, Phoebe Snow, and Lloyd Knibb among others. I’ll try to get to some of these later…

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Christmas Song

To stay in the Christmas mood, here’s one of my favorites Christmas songs. It’s The Christmas Song written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells. It’s been recorded by artists as diverse as Nat “King” Cole, Bing Crosby, and Mel Torme, to The Jackson Five, New Kids on the Block, and Bob Dylan. Although Nat King Cole was the first person to have a hit with the song, I prefer it sung by Mel Torme. (Although I have a good version by Bing, but I couldn’t find a video of it.) The story behind the song is that they wrote it during an extremely hot summer… actually, I’ll let Mel tell the story.

Mel Torme - The Christmas Song

Here's Mel with Judy Garland

Nat King Cole

The Jackson 5

Hope you enjoy the song, and have a Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Tubachristmas

December, and like most people, my thoughts turn to Tubachristmas.

Wait… What… your thoughts don’t turn to massed tubas, sousaphones, euphoniums (euphonia?), baritones, and the odd helicon, or double-belled euphonium, playing Christmas carols?

Well, mine do.

Tubachristmas was started in 1974 in honor of the late William J. Bell, the preeminent tuba player in the first half of the 20^th century. (For more info on William J. Bell and Tubachristmas, check the links at the bottom.) Tubachristmas is held throughout the country. Some attract hundreds of low brass players (this year Kansas City had 612 musicians), and some only attract a few, but they all achieve the same thing: celebrating Christmas through low brass.

I first participated in a Tubachristmas celebration in 1985. I was in college, and playing tuba in the band. I and a couple of the other tuba players found out about the event in Lancaster and decided to go. It was a fun, but that was it—for some reason I didn’t go the following year. Then after I graduated, I put my instrument away. Although I kept my sousaphone, I didn’t play it very often, and every year when November turned to December, I thought about Tubachristmas, but never went.

Fast forward 20 some years. I was still carrying my sousaphone around. It had been with me through several moves, but still sitting unplayed. Then one November, my wife says to me, “You know there’s a Tubachristmas nearby.” And that was it, I dusted off the old sousaphone, found the old Tubachristmas book, and started practicing. Since then I’ve played every year, but unfortunately I had to miss this year. So to get that Tubachristmas feeling, here are some videos.

Rockefeller Center - 2006