Playing by Instinct

Rich Henry talks about the perils of being a jazz musician in New York and how he landed playing for trombonist Buddy Morrow of “Night Train” fame.

Rich Henry, who ran off with a band for six months when he was still in high school, talks about one of his earliest favorites, Tuxedo Junction. In this case the tuxes were wringing wet.

It seems like every month something related to the project gets posted on YouTube, so I added these two videos, one from John Bunch, another from Med, below.

John Bunch performs in Prague with Benny Goodman in 1976. There are several songs from that tour recently uploaded on YouTube.

Med Flory solo during Sarah Vaughn’s “Just Friends”

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Sign in to YouTube now! Sign in with your Google Account! Barth looks back at the Mastersounds’ Monterey music and a missed chance, due to 9/11, at playing with jazz promoter George Wein.

I asked Benny to tell me about some of his photos and enjoyed this story about performing Satin Doll.

Barth tells how one of his mentors, Earl “Fox” Walker — who later went with Lionel Hampton’s band — invited him to watch and learn as he played drums Sunday afternoons at Danceland in Indianapolis. To me it illustrates why Benny became such a good musician — he didn’t mind (literally) taking a back seat to more seasoned players.

I’ve been going through old VHS tapes (they need to be backed up anyway) and finally found some footage of my father playing clarinet. Most of the filming was of dad playing “Old McDonald,” not exactly jazz but better suited to his grandson Kevin’s liking. Kevin is now 14. Note Bellew’s IU sweatshirt.

Benny Barth talks about being inviting over the Bebop Society of Indianapolis, a group composed of black musicians and jazz enthusiasts. Benny was the first white to be invited. Instead of reading last meeting’s minutes, the group opened a bit more creatively. The Society gave one of their first scholarships to David Baker.

Barth compares the black and white marching bands, pointing out how the black drumming cadences were much more original. He mentions saxophonist Pookie Johnson and drummer Willis Kirk, who must have played at the same time Benny was at Shortridge, which also boasted many talented musicians. David Baker mentioned how the success of Attucks’ music program was due to the sheer amount of talented and sometimes overqualified black teachers who were barred from teaching in white schools. Sadly, the Crispus Attucks Wikipedia entry makes no mention of their music legacy.

Lee Katzman mentioned how when he was starting out, fellow musicians Joe and Ray Triscari, Conrad Gozzo, Mickey Mangano, Conte and Pete Candoli all mentored and helped him out any way they could. The Triscari brothers were successful studio musicians in L.A., and in this clip, Katzman describes some of Ray’s generosity. Ray had just bought his mother new furniture.

Lee Katzman describes hanging outside the DU house trying to pick up girls with Benny Barth and Leroy Vinnegar.

Lee Katzman explains how one man’s hangover is another man’s double payment.

So that this excerpt is not taken out of context, let me preface it by saying that Med Flory has a truly beautiful voice — you can really hear it when he croons “Skylark” or “Hoosier Blues” off his Med Flory Quintet’s “The ’40s.” But Lee’s story is just too funny (I’ll hazard a guess the musicians in Dave Pell’s band were friends of Med’s), and the best part is, Med got on stage and showed them anyway.