[78-L] The TIME-LIFE sets (was) Alvino Rey and The Kings

[Jeff Sultanof]

The story is true, and it is about the Lunceford album Billy made in 1957.
He tried to get as many ex-Lunceford musicians as he could, and he was told
that Joe Thomas was an undertaker in St. Louis (I believe that was the
city), but that he still played. Joe was flown out to L.A. and had a ball.
May told him about having to transcribe the arrangements, and Joe casually
told him, "You should have asked me. I have a lot of them in my basement."
According to my information, Joe and pianist Ed Wilcox tried to keep the
band going after Jimmie died, couldn't do it, and then split the book in
half and went their separate ways. I've always wondered what happened to all
that music when Joe died.

Jeff Sultanof


There's a famous story of
> Billy May who transcribed many of the scores from the original rcordings:
> he
> was telling a felow musician what a problem and how time-consuming  it was
> to transcribe one of the charts and how relieved he was when completed. To
> which the musician replied something like, " Oh, man, you should have told
> me, I've got the parts in my garage.
> Jack Daney
>        Big bands are definitely coming back.      How do I know? I read it
> in DownBeat in 1952
>
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