My friend Helmut Licht and his big band...

My longtime friend, Helmut Licht, who plays an S970 arranger keyboard, primarily performing the senior circuit, also has a Big Band, 17 pieces. When he found out I had to retire, he asked what I was going to do with all my backup gear. I said "It's all for sale." He purchased many items, including my once used Samson Airline 77 wireless mic system, and one of my Crown CM311A headset mics. He is switching from a boom, hand-held mic to a headset after seeing me perform and the freedom it offers. He tried it out yesterday here in my office, and said this was the best investment he has made in years. He will be using it during his big band performances, and on the senior circuit.

Attached is a short video of his band from a job he did in Delaware last month. I really love Big Bands.



All the best,

Gary

Ditto I love big bands too. Class all the way!

Gary I remember Helmut stopping by at your arranger jam, too bad he couldn’t stay to join in.

Very enjoyable thanks for sharing

love the big band sound..

Helmut has been extremely successful in the music business and he frequently comments about the jam and wishes I would hold another, but alas, this is out of the question for me.

Thanks guys, for commenting,

Gary

For me, being trumpet soloist in big bands and dixieland bands is the absolute most fun I have ever experienced in music. I'd almost do it for free

I too thoroughly enjoy being lead musician in our not so famous band that has performed weekly at our Cultural Center for almost 50 yrs. I have been there for only 13 yrs, but a few old coots have been faithful from the beginning. As many of you know, in spite of inherent problems occasionally, there is nothing like the comradery of twenty or so old time musicians linked to a common purpose of playing and preserving the music of a bygone era.

I hate to be a pooh-pooher, but there are 10 digital drummers I'd rather work, with than the one in that big band. Absolutely no feel. It's unusual for a better than average band to have a less than average drummer. Not hating, just an observation. He's not very good.

I think you will find that he is only there to keep them in tempo, most brass bands do that with the drummer. Well, they do it here in Australia anyway.

I learned long ago that the rhythm, and tempo HAVE to be set within the arrangement, by all the instruments, not just "follow the drummer" ...
I've said many times, the drummer is at least the 3rd, or 4th important instrument in the band.
Melody/vocals
bass
chords
drums
ALWAYS, for me at least.

Someone has to set the tempo, and for most of us, over the years, it was the drummer, mainly because everyone in the band could usually hear the drummer. The bass player, well not so much. Most of us old rock players were deaf as a post, but we could always hear the drums. And, for the most part, the drummers usually kept very good time.

Gary

I follow the bass. The drummer feels the bass. If you were deaf, it was because of poor speaker placement, bad, or non existence monitors, and that's all unacceptable. You and I have very different pasts, my friend ... but I love having you in my life! We need to get some crabs soon!

If I remember correctly, Gary's hearing was damaged on a battleship, by the volume of the guns.

Actually, it was a heavy Cruiser, USS Newport News, CA-148. It was 760 feet long and about 150-feet wide. When those big guns went off you thought the world as we know it came to an end. The entire ship shuddered.

While onboard the ship, I joined a rock and roll band that was forming, we performed at dozens of locations throughout the Mediterranean area, I played an electric guitar and sang, and I was right in front of the drummer, who was really loud. Had lots of fun back then, but lost a lot of my hearing by the end of my four-year stint in the Navy. Also lost my lungs to asbestos, but didn't know it till later in life.





Gary

I've never heard Can't Buy Me Love like that! How cool!

Big bands I love em’ --- I played guitar with a senior band here in Florida. The leader would allow me to take the band arrangements home so that I could used them to create a sequence on my keyboard.
Drummer???

Every time someone recorded my group the drummer cut through the other instruments. That’s why they place microphones in different areas so that they could be adjusted by a mixer. In church they place a drummer in an enclosure with headphones. Why? You heard the drummer out front and it did not sound very good. If you were there listen to the big band, under the same conditions it would sound different.

I have always believed that: The bass is the heart of the group and the drummer sets and holds the beat.
I had a 4 and sometimes 5, piece group. I told the drummer to hold the beat no matter what my guitar was doing. In reality I was playing on top of the beat (just before it) giving the song we were playing a lift. You would not try to measure the difference; it was more like a feel. Same thing when we played a ballad; I played behind the beat forcing the beat to drag – but the drummer held the beat.

Only my opinion.
Oh how I miss those days, John C.

PS, the best senior band I have ever heard here in Florida was The Second Time around. Fantastic.

Second Time Around Band

Bill, good to see you posting again.

Gary