Famous Musicians I've...(continued)

Dizzy Gillespie; I met him backstage at Shryock Auditorium at S.I.U. after a concert. I forget who got me in...maybe Robbie Stokes was doing sound. A handful of young admirers were asking him questions. When there was a brief lull I piped in, “My father sat in with you a couple times years ago. He was a big white guy named Jim Cox. who played guitar.” (It didn’t occur to me that it would have been obvious he was white). Dizzy paused and looked at me like he was going to mention that fact and ended up just saying, “Well, I’ve played with so many cats over the years I don’t remember a lot of them.”

Woody Herman; I was playing in St. Louis at 4th Street Alley. I heard that Woody was playing at another nightclub about a half block away. I have to preface this with the fact that I had seen Woody and the Thundering Herd at Disneyland back in the early 70’s. Linda and I just happened to walk into a courtyard area and managed to hear them playing the very last song. Back to the early 80’s...so after my gig I packed up very quickly and walked down to the other nightclub with Dave Stahlberg, our trombonist. We walked in and stood behind the stage which was situated in the middle of a four sided bar. Woody was singing and playing clarinet. As the song continued, Woody waved to the audience and blew them a kiss. He walked off the back of the stage, down a couple steps and then right past me and Stahlberg. I stuck out my hand. As we shook hands I said, “Woody, every time I see you, you’re playing the last song!” He said drolly, “Well, you’re going to have to start coming earlier!”

Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown; My band Dr. Bombay arrived at On Broadway in Chicago about noon to start our set-up. As we walked down the center aisle, this older black man wearing a cowboy hat and a cowboy suit was walking up the aisle and we met about halfway down. We had seen on the marquee that Gatemouth had played the night before, but we had assumed he had loaded out after the gig. I think Billy Desmond greeted him, knowing who he was. I had never heard of him and had never heard his music. He seemed like a real friendly guy, quick with a smile and conversation. I hate to admit it, but I believe I’ve still never heard his music.

Kenny ‘G’ AND Jeff Lorber This was back in the early days of ‘video games’. Donkey Kong wasn’t out yet...Pong had been around three or four years...Pac Man was everywhere, and then there was a semi-obscure game called ‘Galaxian’. The year was 1981. I was playing twice or three times a month at Hangar Nine in Carbondale. Every time I got off stage I would run for the Galaxian game and try to run up my normal 100,000 or so points (if I were really on a roll). Well, I had a ‘night off’ and had heard through someone-or-other that the Jeff Lorber Fusion group, whom I’d never heard of, were playing at Hangar, were great practitioners of that new musical genre being referred to as ‘jazz fusion’, and therefore I decided to go hear what they were all about. The keyboardist and leader was Jeff Lorber and among other fantastic players Jeff employed was an18 year old saxophonist named Kenny Gorlick) was playing saxophones. Upon entering Hangar Nine, I played a few games of Galaxian because the band hadn’t started yet. These guys were watching over my shoulder as I played and they expressed an interest in playing after I lost, so when I hit my customary 100 Grand, this guy got on there and played, and played, and played, and played...all one one quarter. He surpassed my Hunnert Grand, went on to 500 Grand and even higher before he either quit or lost. During the time this guy was playing Galaxian I had a conversation with a lad standing next to me and he told me they were in the band and that, in fact the guy playing so well at Galaxian was Jeff Lorber himself. The kid said his name was Kenny. He went on to tell me that they had named their new album “Galaxian” because Jeff and he loved to play it in every nightclub and venue they made music in. As I recall Kenney saying, Jeff could generally hit a million points. Considering the manual dexterity Jeff displayed on the keyboard, he was just a natural at Galaxian. Well, when they went on stage, I realized that the kid was the saxophonist.

A lot has been said about whether or not Kenny G is ‘hip’ or not. All I can remember is how fantastic he played for such a young guy. I was very impressed. He didn’t just play soprano sax back then as I recall. I’m sure he played the alto sax mostly, but...maybe not...time has blurred the memory.

Walter Clark was the drummer who

perished in the tragic plane crash.

Bill Chase’s Drummer; While playing one night at Bonaparte’s Retreat most of the Bill Chase band came in after playing at the university. “Chase”, as the band in its entirety was referred to, had topped the charts that year with the song “Vehicle”. (I’m your vehicle, baby. I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go...) Bill Chase himself was among the few members who didn’t show up that night to hear Coalkitchen. The drummer introduced himself on one of our breaks and asked to sit in. Of course we were delighted to accommodate. The song he played on was and extended version of Frank Zappa’s “Chunga’s Revenge”...an extended jam in 3/4 time with an intricate introductory melody. This was about the best we ever played that song. He was well acquainted with the melody which has the first beat of 3 accentuated for the first four bars and then the second beat for the next 8 bars then back to the first beat for the remainder. The sad ending to this set of paragraphs is that the whole band was killed in a plane crash within a few months. Because the drummer was changed in 1974, I'm not 100% sure it was Walter Clark who sat in with us. He had just replaced Tommy Gordon when the plane crashed with Bill Chase and himself and three other members of the band.

Vincie Dee of late and

at about 9 yrs. of age

www.vincentdee.com/

Vincie Dee, as we knew him around here, was born Vincent Digiavanni in Springfield, Illinois. He took lessons from the "world's fastest drummer" Barrett Deems, who was also from here. He started performing at age 9 and turned professional at 10 with “Johnny & the Cyclones” before I joined them. He was with 'The Holidays' when they had their local hits. I joined them after he left but he came back and filled in for Greg Gerendis (sp?) in the summer of '68 at a gig we played at the Olney, IL Teen Town, a much heralded showplace. The summer before, he was Illinois State Champion Drummer at the Illinois State Fair.
In 1969, he left Springfield to tour with 'The Ink Spots' and then 'Ray Anthony and the Big Band Review'.
Several years later, when he was with Atlantic Recording Group 'Jump ‘N’ the Saddle' Band' ("The Curly Shuffle") my band, 'Dr. Bombay'' opened for them at their home nightclub, Ryan's Pub, in Chicago.
He's been in Nashville since '85. He plays frequently with Brenda Lee on her world wide appearances.
He comes back to Springfield to visit Vincent, Sr., his father, and together they have come out to hear my band and (Jr.) actually sits in on drums with us on a few tunes, giving Brad a chance to go get a beer.

No Pic of

Lenny or

Michael.

Lenny Coltun; The first guitar teacher in history at S.I.U. went on to be the music director and lead guitar player for Helen Reddy. He also did a lot of work for Donna Summer in the studio. We played together in the Midland Villagers and a couple of other pick up bands. Anyway, when I got out to Lake Tahoe, he invited me to go to the Sierra Tahoe to hear the band. Michael Stergis was also in the band. Michael was with the "Stateside Version of the Egyptian Combo" along with Doug Linton while the "Vietnam Version" with 3 original members were overseas. Michael is now known for his guitar work with the touring version of Crosby, Stills and Nash, as well as on their records.

Don Wilson; Rhythm guitarist for the Ventures...I got his autograph when they played the Springfield, IL Teenage Nightclub on south MacArthur. I had loved the Ventures for about three or four years...ever since their big hit "Walk, Don't Run". I'll always remember the first time I heard it. I was probably 12 years old. We were out at Lake Springfield with a friend of Dad's skiing or learning to ski and it was on the radio. So anyway, the band is on the stage, but no bass player, and all of a sudden you hear the bass and this guy comes walking in through the front door playing a bass. He had some kind of radio send device...years before you really started seeing them commonly on stage. Freaked us all out. I got Don's autograph on their first break on the back of one of my band's calling cards. I can't find that card or I'd include a picture. I thought I had a microfilm version of it but I can't find it either.

Mighty Joe Young; My band, “Hip Pocket” opened for MJY at an outdoor affair behind Skelcher’s Tavern out by Devil’s Kitchen Lake. The affair was hosted by the Police Association of Carbondale. I only remember Marvin Jonesi as being one of the members of this one-gig band. I thought up the name of the band. I still think it’s one of the ‘hippest’ names I ever heard.

Bill, left...Chris, right

Chris Brubeck and Bill Crofut; They played Shryock Auditorium with the Bill Crofut Group. I didn’t attend the performance but went to an after party held in their honor at Kathleen and Steve Schaffner’s. They had no transportation (Crofut and his band) and Kathleen took them out to her house for a party. She called me and said, “Guess who’s here?” Being an old fan of his dad’s, I was pretty glad to be able to drive the mile and a half down Chautauqua to the Schaffners’, drink beer, jam and party with Chris Brubeck. He’s a good trombonist which I was somewhat familiar with through his work on his dad’s albums. With the Crofut group he played only upright bass. I found both Chris and Bill to be very warm and friendly. We spent a couple of hours out in Kathleen’s art/music studio playing music and talking. I had assumed that Bill’s name was “Crowfoot” and that he had Indian roots, but he told me the name was Eastern European. At the end of the night Kathleen was a little wasted on weed, whites and wine so Bill and Chris, reticent to ride with her, asked me to take them and their sidemen back to their rooms at the Holiday Inn. They invited me in and gave me about three of their CDs.

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