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

[Jeff Sultanof]

Paul Humphries, who was well-known in modern jazz circles in California.
Welk apparently heard him play at a jazz concert and offered him the job.
Humphries surprised himself and others by taking it and later said that Welk
was a wonderful man to work for. Amazing!

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com> wrote:

> Jeff,  Welk had a black drummer for several years,  Paul something,  who
> replaced the excellent Johnny Klein.  This would have been ca. 1968 - 75.
>
> George Cates was Welk's musical director for many years and wrote a lot of
> fine charts.  The other day I watched a YouTube vid where Welk announces
> that a tune was "a Joe Haymes arrangement."
>
> Taylor B
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeff Sultanof" <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 2:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Lawrence Welk's son said...
>
>
> > 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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