OK, here’s the deal . . .
I wrote a book for a small big band starting back in the eighties. Four saxophones, two trumpets, one trombone, guitar (optional), piano, bass, drums, plus male and female vocal options. I was living in Los Angeles then, right around the time my son was born.
Just a few years ago, after a less than gratifying experience with a local Austin band which will remain hopeless, I started writing four-horn charts for a band that I dreamed up out of whole cloth. While the first band (not MY first band that I wrote a book for, which was the fabled Sofrito back in Santa Cruz, about which maybe something can be said later) was a swing band called the New Flamingo Swing Orchestra, the current band evolved into the Original Recipe Band, which presented a mixture of Sinatra, swing music, Mustang Sally, and oh so many others.
Since we’re become modestly successful here in Texas, I’ve noticed something missing and I’ve decided to search for that something among the old big band charts I wrote long ago, back before the LA Olympics, even before the Moscow Olympics, the one we missed.
Here's the big band's website.
Man, are we dated or what? Well, we need to get out there and play before we can do things like have client comments. I can add those later. I guess we’ve been averaging 2.5 gigs a year. We’d be better off, my spouse says, if that were 2.75 a week. and it’s hard to disagree with that. except it means playing places that don’t pay very well, and that’s a gully that we might not want to jump. Most likely target she suggested was The Carousel, where you bring in your booze in a paper bag and buy set-ups.
I have an idea that this band could work with a new model of territory bands, the smaller, localized units who used to dominate the midwest and other regions. But first, there’s a TON of organizing that needs to be done right here in central Texas.
To be specific, we, which is to say ME, need to update the website.
Then we (me) need to record several vocal charts, some of which we've recorded informally.
We’ll work on some flashy things we can do, and we keep meaning to start rehearsing.
Trouble is, I’m setting out to do stuff knowing full well I may not be able to do it. See, I survived a heart attack a few months back, and with the addition of a pacemaker/defibrillator and through the miracles of several medicines, my thermostat has been set to a very low level. That’s how my cardiologist explained it to me anyway--the lower the metabolic rate the better off I am. While this might be a good thing for my health in general, it is hardly good for getting stuff done. I need a nap or two every day, sometimes at the peak of my daily powers.
When I get up I take a fistful of pills which make me sleepy after 20 to thirty minutes. So no matter what I plan on doing I’m constrained by my metabolic rate, which is keeping me alive. I have the best of intentions, but it's hard as hell to get enough energy together for this--or any--project.
I should say that I don’t seem to be constrained when I’m playing music. I hit the ground running as far as that goes. When I’m playing I never nod off, although it’s a different story when I hit the highway thereafter.
Anyway, I’ve pared down the list to the charts I’d like to record. The list is now six of my arrangements--two instrumentals, two female (canary) vocals, and two male (boy) vocals.
The instrumentals are Well, Git It, based on the Tommy Dorsey recording with Don Loddice on tenor, and Glow Worm by Sam Butera, a feature for Jimmy James on trombone. The canary songs are I Wanna Be Like You, based loosely on the Royal Crown Review’s recording and done originally by Louis Prima in the movie Jungle Book, and I’ve Heard That Song Before, based on Helen Forrest’s recording with Harry James’s band. (It’s the track above.) Boy vocals are Let the Good Times Roll, based on the Sam Butera record, and My Shining Hour, based on the Billy May chart for Sinatra on Trilogy.
Now here’s the deal: I’m trying to think ahead, I really am. I’d like to record the vocals with and without an actual vocal track. That way, if Steve Johnson decides to lead a territorial version of the band in Los Angeles, he can go into the studio with a singer of his choice and add the vocal tracks. Or if one of my old ship buddies in Minnesota decides to, I can get him a version of the charts and the demo and support materials and we’ll be in business. The only stipulations is that these charts won’t fall into the hands of enemy bandleaders and I get a little taste every time the band works. This is the territorial model that I talked about above. Also I’ll be expecting a little payment for each of the gigs, to be pre-arranged. So that’s what I’m up to, and I’m going to make this a record of the project right here on this blog.
Here’s a list of all the tunes (almost all of which I wrote) currently in the book:
Vocal charts:
Ain't That a Kick in the Head
All of Me
Always
The Best is Yet to Come
Better Than Anything
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Cheek to Cheek
Choo Choo Caboogie
Come Fly with Me
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
Fly Me To The Moon
Have You Met Miss Jones?
How Little We Know
I Get a Kick Out of You
I Get a Kick Out of You (Sinatra)
I Got a Right to Sing the Blues
I Love Paris
I've Heard That Song Before
I Won't Dance
I've Got the World on a String
I've Got You Under My Skin
Jump Jive & Wail
Just In Time
The Lady Is a Tramp
Learnin' the Blues
Let the Good Times Roll
Let's Face the Music and Dance
Mack the Knife
Minnie the Moocher
My Funny Valentine
My Kind of Town
My Shining Hour
Nice & Easy
(Our) Love Is Here to Stay
Pollyanna (One of my dad’s songs, arranged by him.)
Rocks in My Bed
Route 66
Say Si Si
She's No Lady (She's My Wife)
Since I Don't Have You
Speak Low
The Tender Trap
Try a Little Tenderness
Witchcraft
You Make Me Feel So Young
You'd Be So Easy to Love
You're Nobody
Young at Heart
Instrumental Charts:
April in Paris
Autumn in New York
Back Bay Shuffle
Begin the Beguine
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Bidin' My Time
Birth of the Blues
Blue & Sentimental
Broadway
Bugle Call Rag
Bye Bye Blackbird
Can't Get Out of this Mood
Candy
Caravan
Cherokee
Cocktails for Two
Come Back to Sorrento
Dancing in the Dark
DC Farewell
Deep Purple
Don't Be That Way
Dream
Dreamsville
Eager Beaver
Four Brothers
Front Page Rag
Glowworm
Good Bye
The High & Mighty
I Can't Stop Loving You
I Cover the Waterfront
I Got It Bad
I Remember Basie
I Wanna Be Like You
I'm Beginning to See the Light
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
In The Mood
Jive at Five
Jumpin' at the Woodside
Let's Dance
Li'l Darlin
Little Brown Jug
Look for the Silver Lining
Lullaby in Rhythm
The Magic Trumpet
Mambo #5
Marie
Miss Fine
Mood Indigo
Moonlight in Vermont
Moonlight Serenade
Moten Swing
Night & Day
No Spring This Year
One O'Clock Jump
Opus One
Over the Rainbow
Pennies from Heaven
Pennsylvania 6-5000
Perdido
Perfidia
Que Rico El Mambo
Rockin' in Rhythm
'S Wonderful
Sentimental Journey
Serenade In Blue
Shiny Stockings
Sing Sing Sing
Something for Cat
Song of India
Song of the Volga Boatman
Sophisticated Lady
Soul Bossa Nova
Splanky
Stardust
Stompin' at the Savoy
String of Pearls
Sugar Foot Stomp
Sunny Side March
Swanee River
Take the "A" Train
Tango Medley
Tenderly
That Old Black Magic
The Mooche
Theme Song Medley
Tribute To Helen Dell
Waltz Medley
Well, Git It
Western Medley
What's New
When Lights Are Low (Benny Carter)
You'll Be There (One of my dad’s tunes/arrangements)
In the middle of the two weeks that it took me to write this introduction to the band to be reborn, I went to San Marcos High School, 30 miles south of here, and heard the Airmen of Note, the best use of my tax dollars I’ve heard in ages. Hearing the Note put the wind back in my sagging sails, by hearing the best service band execute big band music as well as any band I’ve heard in years. They owe a lot more to Stan Kenton and Thad Jones than they owe to their lineal ancestor, the Glenn Miller AAF band. Nonetheless, this is the best band doing the best charts and playing everyday with the great application of talent and road chops. Sails are filled.
