Amazing work Vinnie Tanno did with the Gleason show. I was just a very youngl elementary school kid during this period. This was during the time of black and white tv and everyting these shows did was live, including the music. Every week that lead player nailed that show's theme. Every. Week. This was before I started playing the trumpet but it was what stuck with me years later when our school band director asked my group what instrument would we like to play in the band? Whithout hesitation, I wanted to play the trumpet (like the Gleason show guy).
_________________ Jim Calkins
IA City
"Rooty toot bop pattern. Rooty toot blues lick. Rooty toot Miles quote. Rooty toot mistake- all my solos." -Dmitri Matheny
Joined: 24 Feb 2008 Posts: 2642 Location: vista ca
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:31 am Post subject:
i read an interview in the new york brass conference journal that said the TV show player was billy butterfield who moved down to miami to do the show kind of like semi retired. It was an interview with billy butterfield _________________ Mouthpiece Maker
vintage Trumpet design enthusiast
www.meeuwsenmouthpieces.com www.youtube.com/lipshurt
Joined: 26 Jan 2012 Posts: 856 Location: Point O' Woods / Old Lyme, Connecticut
Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2017 4:59 pm Post subject:
Here's the rest of the story...
"Nevertheless, in 1963 I started making mood albums with Jackie Gleason. This sensational and best-selling series of recordings put out by Capital Records had begun quite some time before, and the story of how they started is another one of those classic tales of the entertainment industry. Jackie Gleason greatly admired Bobby Hackett's cornet stylings, so at his own expense he financed a recording session and the production of an album featuring Bobby's horn. But when he tried to sell one of the record companies on issuing the album, nobody would touch it. A year later it was still in the can when Capital approached Gleason about doing something else for them. Jackie knew an opportunity when he saw one and told them he was only available if they would issue his album. So a deal was made and the result was a runaway best-seller, "Music For Lover's Only," followed by a long series of albums under Jackie's name."
"Bobby Hackett for a long time continued to be the featured soloist on these recordings, and then one day I got a call from Lou Shoobe asking if I would like to make one. I was delighted with the offer. It would be hard to find a more ideal setting for a soloist---the largest string section used in recording (48 strings), marvelous arrangements, and the latest in recording techniques. You couldn't ask for a nicer background. But through the years it has never been my policy to cut anybody out of anything, so I told Lou I wanted to think it over, and soon as I got a chance, I put in a call to Bobby Hackett. Bobby assured me that he and Jackie had parted on friendly terms, and only because Bobby had been offered a deal to make a series of albums under his own name. He told me to take the offer, and I made six albums for Jackie."
A guy I knew named Nick Russo who was a fixture in the Orlando area for years and years always said he was the lead player with Gleason at one point. I saw an old Martin Committee magazine ad where he was one of the featured artists, I'm pretty sure it listed him as being Gleason's lead player. I know he could play - for a number of years he led a group at Disney World called Nick Russo and Gabriel's brass, was president of the AFM local for a while. He had a big, lyrical old-school sound very much like Goz. I played in a few bands with him in his later years - he was in his 70's - 80's and wasn't quite the powerhouse he had been in earlier years but he still had that big, fat sound. I think he played that same Committee for around 60 years give or take. Last time I saw it, it had patches on the leadpipe due to red rot, I guess he didn't want to replace the original pipe.
Sure loved his show and remember watching it as a youngster. _________________ Schilke X3 Bb trumpet
Yamaha 631g Flugelhorn
Nicholson Monette Prana Resonance LT mouthpiece
Kanstul Claude Gordon Personal mouthpiece
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