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What instrument should you take up if you want to be a big band leader?

Good Answer: saxophone
Can Get By: clarinet
Bad Answer: theremin

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Big_band_bandleaders

Raw Data:

Georgie Auld, sax
Craig Ball, clarinet
Charlie Barnet, sax
Count Basie, piano
Leo Baxter, piano
Phil Baxter, singer
Benny Benack, trumpet
Tex Beneke, sax
Barney Bigard, clarinet
Will Bradley, trombone
Les Brown, sax
Henry Busse, trumpet
Cab Calloway, singer
Benny Carter, sax, trumpet, clarinet
Opie Cates, clarinet
Doc Cheatham, trumpet
Bob Crosby, singer
Wallace Davenport, trumpet
Tommy Dorsey, trombone
Duke Ellington, piano
Mercer Ellington, trumpet
Ziggy Elman, trumpet
Shep Fields, clarinet, sax
Ralph Flanagan, piano
Frank Foster, sax, flute
Benny Goodman, clarinet
Lee Gordon, piano
Gigi Gryce, sax, clarinet, flute
Lionel Hampton, vibraphone, piano
Erskine Hawkins, trumpet
Fletcher Henderson, piano
Tal Henry, violin
Peter Herbolzheimer, trombone
Woody Herman, clarinet, sax
Teddy Hill, drums, clarinet, sax
Tiny Hill, drums
Claude Hopkins, piano
Peanuts Hucko, clarinet
Lloyd Hunter, trumpet
Harry James, trumpet
Stan Keller, clarinet, sax, flute, oboe
Stan Kenton, piano
Andy Kirk, sax, tuba
Gene Krupa, drums
Harlan Leonard, clarinet
Walt Levinsky, clarinet, sax
Abe Lyman, drums
Jay McShann, piano
Glen Miller, trombone
Lucky Millinder, none
Ozzie Nelson, singer
Red Norvo, vibraphone
Tony Pastor, sax
George Paxton, sax
Red Perkins, trumpet
Reuben Phillips, sax
Ben Pollack, drums
Louis Prima, trumpet
Alvino Rey, guitar
Harry Robinson, unknown
Anselmo Sacasas, piano
Jan Savitt, violin
Artie Shaw, clarinet
Lew Soloff, trumpet
Teddy Stauffer, violin, sax
Nat Temple, clarinet, sax
Claude Thornhill, piano
Nat Towles, bass
Chick Webb, drums
Anna Mae Winburn, piano, guitar, singer

Cindy and I went downtown to the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art for a concert in their series featuring local jazz artists. The weather was kind of doubtful that day and the concert was moved into the pavilion cafe. That looked like a bad decision during the first set, since the weather was partly sunny, the cafe was very crowded and kind of hit. During the second set and part of the third it poured rain, so then we were thinking that they looked like geniuses for having it inside. DC weather is like that.

The big draw for us was the Tom Williams Quintet. I never really got a good picture of all five guys, but here’s some flavor, featuring the man himself.

We had been wanting to go and hear Tom play for quite some time, but this time the scheduling and baby-sitting just worked out and we were off. Tom, Cindy and I all went to high school together, were all in band, lived through the marching, playing in the rain and snow, and the other vagaries of high school. Some others from the old high school band group were there too: Betty (who tipped us off about this gig in the first place, Darren, and Jim. It was great to see everyone and several other folks in the audience figured out that we all knew each other and were asking questions about it. Lots of fun.

The TWQ was the event for the evening though and they played three very nice sets. The music was just great and they were really connecting with the crowd in the close quarters of the pavilion cafe. There was a very nice blend of tunes from “The Theme”, to Miles Davis, to a couple of Tom’s own compositions. Every set had a nice flow and we stayed for the whole deal.

Here’s a picture worthy of reminiscing over. Thinking about how “local guy makes good” and “we knew him back when…”. But truth be told, Tom “made good” a long time ago. If you don’t have his CDs, zip on over to amazon and check out Straight Street and Introducing Tom Williams, both of which are very nice.

We went to see David Grier at Baldwin’s Station Thursday night. David is an old school-mate of ours and several folks from the old neighborhood were there to hear him. He put on a fantastic show and we really enjoyed it.

Baldwin’s Station is a cool little restaurant in Sykesville in a building that was formerly a train station. The trains still run through there regularly (not through the building but it sounds like it…) and a few went through during the evening, laying on the whistle. Too bad none of them were in the middle of a train song, but it was cool anyway. The concerts are put on by Uptown Concerts, a local non-profit and they do a nice job. The venue holds about 50 people and you can be seated for dinner up to 90 minutes before the show starts, but service proceeds all during the concert, though at somewhat reduced frequency of wait-staff visits to the table. The room was pretty full for David’s concert, only a couple of seats were empty. We had a great meal and a great dessert too.

I hadn’t seen David in years, since high-school I guess, and it was great to see him again. His picking was just extraordinary, very crisp, fast at times, and just great to listen to. David played several well known tunes as well as quite a few of his own compositions. They ranged from the hauntingly melancholy “Road to Hope” to the sparking beauty of “High Atop Princess Cove”. David’s seemingly endless ability to produce variations on a theme was a marvel, it encompassed so much deep knowledge of the structure of music and tonality and was just a delight as the variations would keep rolling along. At some points so much music was coming out of the guitar that he seemed to be just giving the instrument little shakes on his knee to shake out even more things, like shaking powdered sugar on top of pancake syrup or something — good on good, you know. I really enjoyed how David used the guitar to play counterpoint and harmony with itself. It was a real treat to hear someone of his caliber in such a small setting, feeling that we were right up close to the action.

We heard some about David’s youth during the concert, and thankfully he didn’t mention any of the bad stuff any of us did with him (or to him) during high school. David’s dad, Lamar Grier, played banjo with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Yep, the Father of Bluegrass himself might have been in Maryland City at one time sitting on David’s back porch just picking away. It’s hard to take, since I like that kind of music, that I never knew any of this until years later. It is surprising how little you can get to know people during school hours.

Now if only he would have played some tunes that I know so I could tell if he was any good or not. : – )

So run right out and buy David’s CDs if you like bluegrass and good picking. They are really nice.