YO Tony, Russ,
Been too sick to follow up on this post but I am up and moving around a little bit this morning. Been down near two weeks with a severe sinitus infection.
I have been through all the ringers that musicians of old suffered through. Maybe it was because of them that I went through so much of this for so long. You see it was an accepted way of life for us in those days. It was not only accepted by us but also our peers that we played for. They would say, Oh, that is ok He is a musician
We lived to play and we played to live.
Side man scale was 10.00, doubling to 15.00 plus your meds We might get two nights a week with our band and then another night or two through the "hall".
I left the band and went to 6 nights a week piano bar, at 10.00 a night, plus tips, plus booze. I kept a mt bottls of 4 star Henesy along side me under the piano keyboard with a funnel. What I didn't drink went in the funnel. I only drank 4 star boiler makers so I would drink the beer and dump the shot into the bottle. That bottle was worth another 12.00 if full at the end of the shift. The tips could average 20.00 but on days when this racetrack crowd had a big and profitable day at Santa Anita racetrack, tips might go to 2 or 300.00. This hotel I worked in was where all the owners, jocks, trainers, etc stayed during the meet. By day, I handicapped the horses and went to the track, and often made a little more bread to feed all my bad habits.
I am not going to go through all the grusome background, the pain, the fears, the distress, and the humility again but suffice to say that:
I married my 8th wife in 1974. She got me into a rehab program. It was to be 30 days. I flunked so was signed over twice. After 90 days they finally turned me loose.
I then begin to channel my energies into my business and it really begin to prosper. My spiritual program moved me in directions that I would have never thought possible. I played Organ in the church house and no more gigs. They had to teach me the music every week because I had never played this stuff and sight reading was more then rusty.
In 1982, I turned my business over to the employees to operate and we went into full time field evangilism. We traveled this country for 5 years, speaking at all denominations, and making the effort to reach the poor suffering people from my background. I found that there was at least one person in every church that had a background similiar to mine. There were usually several closet AA's and NA as well.
My businesses supported our 5 years in the field and we would probably still be there but the IRS thought they could shake me down for a ton of bucks so we had to come home for an 18 month audit. We sold our RV, bought another house and here we still sit.
Straight, sober, Clean, happy, and much to my amazement now 74 years old.
In the old days we worked hard, we played hard and we mostly died hard. We thought it was the good life. We always thought we played better under various influences but when we did recordings we soon learned we could barely play at all in that condition.
Would I do it all over again? Absolutely not I say from my current perspective but very likely looking back to where my head was then.
I hope that this post speaks for the many musicians that are no longer able to speak and gives you a little insight into what we went through in those days, and why.
It wasn't a good life but it was our life.
It is my hope that anyone reading this will learn something from it and side step some of the many mistakes we all made in the "GOOD OLE DAZE".
Best to all,
Bebop

BeBop ... WOW .. what a story ... You could probably sell it to Hollywood ... starring Harrison Ford as BeBop ?!? ... ...
Glad to hear you are feeling better ...
t.

BeBop...glad you're feeling better.

I've sort of been there, but, because of Ray Brown's influence, stayed away from all hard drugs (except the kind we all smoked in college).

I drank four 4-four ounce old fashioned glasses of brandy six nights a week (minimum) for nearly 30 years. My favorite bartender estimated that it was over 3,000 gallons! That scared me to death, and I quit in 1988. The hardest part was listening to myself at 1:00 AM stone sober.

Ray took me to see some of the giants of Jazz
working in LA in 62-63. I was a wet behind the ears 16 year old and too stupid to appreciate what I saw and heard, but the list
included Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd,
Monk, Cannonball, Clark Terry and many more. What I saw were lonely, sick, unstable, unhappy old players. He told me to learn from, but never be like them. I didn't want to be like that, and I didn't think I was good enough to cut it, so I became a"full time" "part timer". With most types of music, you need to be adequate...with jazz you need to be the top of the heap if you have any chance of making it.

Jazz is so intense, potentially dark and destructive, but involves enjoyment and incredible highs if approached correctly.

If you haven't "been there", you'll never understand.

I'm really glad to know you, and I'm REALLY glad we're both survivors.

With great admiration and respect....


Russ




[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 03-20-2006).]

hey, Chaz...when your fly is open, do you count "one, two, three, three and a Half?"

Hang in there, bud!(I REALLY don't want to know!).


Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 03-20-2006).]

Russ ... have you ever posted any of your music?
thnx,
t.

HI RUSS,
I made the scene in La for a lot of years but bailed in 59, went up to Seattle, started a new company and spent the next 10 years covering 8 countries on a continuing basis.Bebop

[This message has been edited by BEBOP (edited 03-21-2006).]

Hi, Tony. Believe it or not, I don't have a demo disk, a promo package or even a photo, and I'm in the communications business. The recording I do is all film score music for the films my company produces. Most are edited to a length of 15-19 minutes. I sent Tony Rome a sample of a rough a while back, and sent Uncle Dave a piece just before his wedding last year.

90 plus percent is proprietary material owned by the client. I do have a piece I'm just finishing which I'll be retaining the rights to, because the client dosn't mind. Comparing these compositions to music written for public performance is strange, considering there's generally a big entro and end where titling and credits roll, and the body consists of fairly simple melodic lead lines
which become the music bed for the voiceover.

If you'd like, I could send you this rough to
see what you think. While the music is important, as the writer, camera operator, producer, musician and editor, satisfaction comes from the whole project, and the music is about 15% of the work.

Still, I think the ability to create original scores gives us an advantage in the film production business and in other areas of our work (musical themes for conventions, jingles for manufacturers and retailers,etc.).

I'll email you to get your address if you'd like.

Thanks for the interest.


Russ

Russ ... I'd love to hear it ...
.... does the e-mail in your profile go directly to you? ...
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 03-21-2006).]

Hi, Tony...I emailed you just before lunch. If you will respond to that, I'll access it from my laptop. As I told you in my email, we're switching over to DSL from our "dinosaur" dialup, which until about two weeks ago was the only thing available into our old warehouse. I'm the only one who uses that email address, so I'll be sure to get it. I'll change the email address in the profile when I finish notifying everyone.

I should finish the rough and be ready to present a rough cut of the film to the client by Thursday. Then we make refinements to both the track and the footage before we record the final score, making necessary timing adjustments along the way.

I'm flattered that you asked about my work! Frankly, because of what it is, I didn't think anyone here would be interested. I'll send you the rough before the week-end. The rough will be made using an old Yamaha T-100 tone generator computer controller and an Alesis drum machine. I generally use whatever is around during the conception stage.

I do this kind of work because I have the budget to hire superior players, it's an integral element of an important larger project, and I get paid pretty big bucks. In this case, the score will bill out at about $7500.00.

Of course it's a compromise, but this approach allows me sufficient creative control to make the work and the final projects satisfying.


Thanks...be looking for "snail mail" next week!


Russ

Russ ... thank YOU !!! I'll be looking for it ....
t.