Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
You think any of US are good enough to have played with Dorsey's band...?

I'm sorry, but musicians were musicians back then... How many of us could sit down and play a big band gig on piano? Most of us here would have been born 50 or 75 years too EARLY, if we had been born back then... There was no one finger chords, there was no sequencers, you played every note they heard.

Happy days...


I probably was. I was first chair trumpet player in the All-State Concert Band in Oklahoma as a sophomore in High School.
There wasn't much I couldn't play. I once got a compliment from Harry James, but he may have just been being nice to a kid.
I turned down college scholarships to play basketball instead and I lost a couple of front teeth in college playing basketball, so never was the same after that.
I incorporated the trumpet into several bands I worked with after college. The chops were still there, but the lip no longer held up after a few minutes.
I also found that people paid you to play organ or guitar and sing, but not so much for playing trumpet.
Still, the experience of playing in a ensemble is priceless. I also learned to play other instruments, including drums, guitar, bass and baritone. I'm sure I still use a lot of that experience as an arranger player.
DonM
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DonM