[78-L] Lawrence Welk's son said...

[Jeff Sultanof]

Interesting that this thread would come up. Welk was a huge traditional jazz
fan, and his last band was one of the best big bands in the country, with
excellent musicians who could play absolutely everything. When the band
played big band standards, it played them very well. He had excellent
arrangers such as Jack Pleis and Joe Rizzo (who once wrote for Stan Kenton).

Let's also remember that he loved Johnny Hodges, produced an album for him
in which no expense was spared, and wanted to hire him to play lead in his
band, proving he was also color-blind when it came to musicians (although
Arthur Duncan was the only black performer on the show, and a tap dancer to
boot). If he couldn't get Hodges, he got alto players who sounded like
Hodges, such as Skeets Herfurt whom he got out of retirement. I looked
forward to Herfurt's solos every week, as he could still play beautifully.

Welk knew what the public wanted and gave it to them (Yes, I also find Joe
Feeney and Norma Zimmer hard to take), but he had good taste in music, and
it showed in the final years of his show.

Jeff Sultanof
On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 5:11 AM, RAY KILCOYNE <kil at roadrunner.com> wrote:

>
> From: "Rodger Holtin"
> The problem for guys like DL and others is you have to wade through hours
> of
> Joe Feenamint and Norma Zimmmmerrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ... and I don't blame
> you.
> We let it play while we do the dishes and once in a while get lucky - but
> like any other instance of getting lucky - it's not very often.
> >
> I've waded through many an hour of Welk just for a short glimpse of Kathy
> Lennon.  Still do.
> RayK
>
>
>
> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>
>
>
> ..
>
>
>
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