(12/5/02)
Posted on 12/06/2002 4:50:00 AM PST by Chairman_December_19th_Society
Milt Buckner was a fantastic jazz organist. Back in the 1970s I used to sit in with him once in a while. He played Europe in the winter but he came back to the USA in the Summer time. He worked club circuits. Milt could play piano with his right hand and organ with his left hand. That is not so hard to do but he could play two different songs one on piano and one on organ at the same time.
He taught me to just think a phrase and play it. He would do very involved jazz riffs. He did not think of them as notes .. but the whole riff. On some of them he could not tell you the notes he played. If you asked him how to play it, he would have to stop and figure out how he did it.
You could give Milt any song and ask him to play it in any style... I used to have him play songs like George Shearing would play the song. Then have him do the same song like Basie or even Ferante and Teicher.
I could never play guitar with him because he would arrange songs in his head as he played them with new transition chords not in the books. He called them experience chords. He had played with all the top names in jazz.
What a lot of people did not know was many of the country mucic musicians in Nashville played Jazz for fun. I had gotten a taste of Jazz in nashville in the late 50s.
I once worked a gig with Tex Ritter and Smiley Burnett. Tex was a B movie star in the 30's and 40's. He was John Ritter's (Three's company) Dad. Tex always had you bring him on with "Deep in the Heart of Texas" We would play a chorus as they opened the curtain, then I would introduce Tex and he would come out and sing it. Once just for fun, we did it in a Cha Cha beat. It is a good thing Tex did not have real shells in the pair six shooters he was wearing.
I just spent 30 minutes tearing up the house. I had lost my boot polish. Sheesh! I do drill weekends like a production of "South Pacific". Lots of last minute chaos. LOL! But everything turns out perfectly. Mostly.
/john
I have a very musical weekend ahead of me; accompanying two kids in a concerto competition tomorrow, then playing for Mass at 4, then attending the symphony Christmas concert; and on Sunday, two Masses, and attending a production of "Nutcracker" w/ the Fox Valley Symphony and members of the Moscow Ballet.
AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF..........Sunday night Packers game! No music there, but MUSIC TO MY EARS if they win!!!
Glad I'm not going to the game, though; the high Sunday is supposed to be 21, and that's long BEFORE nightfall.:)
There is an advantage to polishing boots in front of a fireplace. My polish on these is going to look pretty good tomorrow.
/john
I guess we won't be hearing from you for a few days.........hope your weekend goes well..........
I'm going to sign off.........have to get up sort of early (for a Saturday) and be ready to play Mozart by 9:00 a.m.:)
Fourteen angels, Johnny...........make that 28, since you won't be here tomorrow night, prolly.............
God bless us all. Each, and every one.
/john
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