[78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

Tue Nov 30 17:30:18 PST 2010

I also play clarinet but I never had that tune in my repertoire.I usually played 
Benny Goodman tunes I had heard as a very young kid.I was around 7 or 8 years 
old and took up clarinet back in
1967 when I was 16.I have a plastic Vito right now as well as a plastic C.Bruno 
and Sons of unk-
nown vintage.My first clarinet was a plastic Bundy my sister had but she never 
lasted with it.I wish
I had kept it but now,I'd like to find a good grenadilla wood one.I gave  $50.00 
for the Vito which I had overhauled by a friend.It cost me an $18.00 Tommy 
Dorsey biography to get it fixed.
The book wasn't that great:I read it a few years ago when I bought it and 
another copy of it new.By then,I had known the late "Skeets" Herfurt and he told 
me more about both Dorseys than
the book did.I knew him from 1982 until his death ten years later.I knew him by 
way of a 1937 

Tommy Dorsey recording of "Little White Lies" plus a had a 1942 Victor Alvino 
Rey recording of
"I Never Knew" on which he played clarinet.That was in 1965 or '66 and I had 
rediscovered the
whole big band thing which I've taken seriously ever since.I didn't read about 
Skeets until I read 

that book Simon wrote in 1967 "The Big Bands".I called Skeets in 1982 just to 
tell him who much I admired him and his alto sax work.I played more alto and 
tenor then(I also played baritone in c-
ollege in 1972:I wound up being the permanent replacement for a kid who was 
killed the year bef-
ore in a car wreck named Larry Graham.He and I had been good friends since 
junior high and in
high school.We were both North Bend High School graduates in 1970.I have lived 
in North Ben-
d,Oregon off and on between 1965 and the present.).I also was a jazz trumpeter 
and something of a slide trombonist.I played tuba in junior high and high 
school.I couldn't play one now worth a
four lettered obscenity and I saw section leader in high school.It was the 
easiest brass instruments I played.

________________________________
From: Tim Huskisson <timhuskisson at btinternet.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tue, November 30, 2010 4:00:51 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

Re. 'PETITE FLEUR'(any clarinettists here?)- Monty Sunshine's version is in
the key of G#(Ab) Minor - Bechet's was in G minor - I'd read somewhere that
Monty learned the tune from a Bechet 78 that was spinning too fast on the
turntable. But as a clarinettist myself, often requested to play this tune,
I'd long suspected that Monty actually recorded it in G minor (a much easier
key) and producer Joe Meek sped it up. 
Of course Monty hadn't been with the Chris Barber band for many years, but
they still play 'Petite Fleur' and I heard this evening that they always
play it in G# minor.

Tim Huskisson

-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Bud Black
Sent: 30 November 2010 22:59
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: Re: [78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

Wasn't it he who recorded "Petit Fleuer" about 1957 (or so) with Chris
Barber's Jazz Band? 

Bud 

-------Original Message------- 

From: Royal Pemberton 
Date: 11/30/2010 5:38:35 PM 
To: 78-L Mail List 
Subject: Re: [78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP 

Made all the pretty petite fleurs grow! 

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 10:17 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico
ca>wrote: 

> On 11/30/2010 5:15 PM, Julian Vein wrote: 
> > Dingo wrote: 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Just received news clarinetist Monty Sunshine died at lunchtime today, 
> >> 30/11/10, aged 82. 
> >> ~~ 
> >> John D 
> >> 
> >> _______________________________________________ 
> > Wast it something he ate? 
> > 
> > Julian Vein 
> 
> The sunshine was supposed to be good for us when we were kids... 
> 
> dl 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
> 78-L mailing list 
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com 
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