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Jackie Gleason


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Rich G
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Biber wrote:

So far nobody has spoken of Gleason himself playing trumpet. So how do you know this?

b


Anyone who (paraphrased) says to Frankie Avalon - when you press the 1st valve you get an Eb, and the 2nd valve gives you a Bb - didn't play trumpet.

In fairness to Gleason, that dalog on valve pressing from the youtube clip was probably for comedy purposes only - not for musical accuracy. Read: not to be taken seriously.
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textr
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Biber wrote:
textr wrote:
Yup, it sure enough is true , ...


So far nobody has spoken of Gleason himself playing trumpet. So how do you know this?

b

Well, I don't know it for gospel. I mean , I wasn't there . But my Dad had some of those Gleason albums and I remember reading in the liner notes that Jackie Gleason would demonstrate the style of how he wanted the arrangment to be, by playing the melodies on the trumpet "which he played with remarkable facility and on which he is self taught"
So that is how I know that Jackie Gleason played the trumpet. You will notice that I did not say he played trumpet on the albums.
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Biber
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

textr wrote:
... I remember reading in the liner notes that Jackie Gleason would demonstrate


Thanks, i guess that's what I was looking for

b
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jazz_trpt
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, it appears that he knew the music well enough to conduct in a live setting:

http://www.bigbandsandbignames.com/gleason.html

If he's credited as the conductor on the liner notes, I don't see much reason to doubt that in the absence of other evidence...
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JonKratzer
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

He also (co?)-wrote the Honey Mooner's Theme song "You're My Greatest Love" with BIll Templeton
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JetJaguar
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

JonKratzer wrote:
He also (co?)-wrote the Honey Mooner's Theme song "You're My Greatest Love" with BIll Templeton


I've always loved the trumpet on the opening to the Honeymooners. Some serious air is going through that horn. Does anyone know who that is playing?
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jazz_trpt
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jetjaguar wrote:
I've always loved the trumpet on the opening to the Honeymooners. Some serious air is going through that horn. Does anyone know who that is playing?


I know that at one time Lee Castle was the featured soloist with that band, but I think another name is more commonly associated with that solo...
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Rich G
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jetjaguar wrote:
JonKratzer wrote:
He also (co?)-wrote the Honey Mooner's Theme song "You're My Greatest Love" with BIll Templeton


I've always loved the trumpet on the opening to the Honeymooners. Some serious air is going through that horn. Does anyone know who that is playing?


If it was his theme, Melancholy Serenade, it was most likely Chris Griffin. I've been searching the internet for it with Chris's solo but can't find it. The closest thing I found was Ella Fitzgerald singing the song. As you might expect, she gave a great vocal rendition.

As for Gleason playing trumpet, one of his old B&W Honeymooner episodes dealt with his finding his old cornet. Throughout the episode he can't reach the high note he's going for. He tells Alice he never was able to hit that note, but "one of these days I'm gonna hit that high note".

At the end of the show he goes for the high note. (I digress: I believe he was actually working prior to the episode to get the high C. This was live TV - on the air in front of a live studio audience).

Well... he struggles to hit the high C but doesn't quite get it. He turns to his wife and says... "well, that's a piece of it, Alice!"

That line seemed like an ad lib to me, because I believe he expected to make it. I remember how hard he pressed that mouthpiece to his lips and how he got so tensed up! He blew so hard I thought a vein in his neck was going to pop! This was no dub.

This show, like most of his Honeymooner episodes, was an allegory of his life as Ralph Kramden, an ordinary working guy, struggling to make ends meet - optimistically striving for the American dream that someday he was going to make it big and get out of that two room apartment.

I sensed watching this particular episode that he wanted very badly to show his audience that he could actually hit that high note. I remember feeling bad that he didn't get it.

As for Jackie Gleason's songwriting, one episode of The Honeymooners dealt with a song he had composed that he was trying to get recorded.

Everytime he sang "the radiators go bang, the garbage covers go clang..." the studio audience roared with laughter. At the end of the show, the song was sung by (I think) Vic Damone... nobody laughed!

After that episode the song was released on record and played on the radio. It didn't make the billboard charts, but it was typical of Gleason's love for moody romantic ballads.
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JonKratzer
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The best tihng about the video is all of the fingerings are absolutely correct..
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