Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Jazz pianist, a legendary figure in the jazz world.
On the island
Eight records
the reason I have Don Redmond is because he was way ahead as far as uh music was concerned and uh he's always looking for new ideas. He's a young man at that time that played all the instruments in the band.
I wrote a tune called Ann, And uh her name is Ann Jones. So when Have You Met Miss Jones came out, I made a medley of it. So Have You Met Miss Ann Jones.
Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians
the reason I did is because he had uh a glee club that I liked. the the coral group and uh I was trying to figure out how in the world I would ever have something like that.
East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra
I like Easter Sunday because it was Tommy Dorsey, who's my very close personal friend.
I've always loved male vocals to be a male vocalist. He was no crooner, he was a singer.
what a musician he was. He's the greatest tenor player that I've heard in a long while. He had a style of his own. And that's Ben Webster I'm speaking about.
Trust in MeFavourite
there's a girl here that really knew what feeling was. She didn't record just for the money and it she didn't care about the money end of it. She recorded because she felt these songs.
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
what a style and what an arrangement and what a guy. That's Duke Ellington.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:42Did you find it difficult to choose just eight discs to take with you?
Yes, I did, because uh over a period of years all the thousands of musicians or uh that I know, vocals, And instrumental, and it really was different. Very difficult.
Presenter asks
3:14Do you remember the very first record you made yourself?
Well, the first record I made was with uh Laws Depp. And that was in Richmond, Indiana, on Jeanette Label. and each instrument had their own horn. And it was a room that was full of steam. They steamed that room for tone to in order to get sound. And we'd stand there about fifteen, twenty minutes, you have to take your coat and your shirt off, you know. And uh then they had uh wax for records. We had to wait for the wax to be set up. And they uh it took about oh, around fifteen, twenty minutes before the wax was hot enough for to record. And then we're the trouble was, it's not like tape now. You had to be very careful of every little sound you made because if we had if it ruined, we had to wait another twenty-five minutes or thirty minutes before the other h wax was hot. And then go back to the beginning. Everybody's very, very careful and and waiting for that drummer, especially on the end, don't drop a cymbal or nothing, you know, and everybody's staying quiet and you sit there like a mouse, you see.
Presenter asks
6:26How old were you when you had your first job?
The keepsakes
The book
Stanley Dance
The closest friend I ever had in my life, Duke Ellington's book.
The luxury
Exercise implements and equipment
I'm going to carry all of my uh exercise implements that you have, and I'm going to uh do a little walking around the island.
Sixteen. ... I was working in a club then. ... Well, I think I got fifteen dollars a week and my uh room and board.
Presenter asks
12:40Did you go along with what [Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie] were experimenting with?
No, I didn't like it, Roy. I uh it was getting away from the melody a lot. But then we had to stay with what the young people were asking for at that particular time. And I knew these boys were ambitious and I always had I left a a field for any improvement if they want to do it. And some of the things, I told him I didn't like these things, but Dizzy made me some arrangements, so did Charlie. And I had about twelve bebop arrangements in my book, but I think what happened there was I think they gave it a bad title. At the end of the thing, uh, by the time they got to finishing it, they'd run out of breath. And that's why they called it Bebop. But it was a very bad name, I think. I think it would it would have gone farther than he did if it hadn't been for that. But then too, on the other hand, then the the arrangers got out of hand. They got completely away from the melody. And the public didn't know what was happening. And then the music was fast, it was not danceable, and so that's what I think actually heard Bebop.
Presenter asks
27:57How are you going to make out on this desert island? Could you look after yourself?
Oh, yeah, because uh what I'm going to do out there, I'm going to carry all of my uh exercise implements that you have, and I'm going to uh do a little walking around the island. And I'm also going to do the running around the island if it's possible.
“I thought of the trumpet style. I thought of what my father was playing to lead the band with. So I used trumpet style and orchestras on the piano and used trumpet style and I cut through the band. That's where all the pianists began to use the same thing.”
“And he called a meeting one day and not him, but his uh lieutenant, for his name Fusco, and he called a meeting and said, I want to meet everybody that's in the o organization, the show people, the band musicians and the waiters. And he said, I want all of you to be like the three monkeys. You hear nothing, you see nothing, and you say nothing. And that's what we did, and that's why we got along.”
“He said, Here comes Father Hines through the forest with his little children. So the head of the network said, Leaving in.”