[78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

Thu Dec 2 20:59:37 PST 2010

I was more into Swing.In fact,when I got into it the "British Invasion" was 
going on.This was back
in 1965.That whole scene meant nothing to me musically and I didn't hide it-to 
me,the British Inv-
asion was musically backwards.If this sounds suddenly off the subject,It's not:I 
rediscovered the 

Big Band Era by way of trumpeter Bunny Berigan.and I had already done the '50s 
Rock and Roll
thing.I had heard the originals;the Stones and the Beatles did so-so copies that 
left me cold.The
Dave Clark Five was an exception because they rocked harder.I liked them.I had a 
number of 

Eddie Condon LPs on American Columbia but the most recent find for me was an ABC 
Param-
ount LP showcasing the alto sax of Boyce Brown,who,from 1953 'til his death in 
1959,served as
a Servite Order monk.He took the name of "Brother Matthew" which was how this LP 
was issu-
ed.Condon led the band and produced the album.He didn't play guitar on the 
session.I had heard
Boyce Brown some 30 years earlier via an MCA album that featured some cuts by 
Jimmy McP-
artland.Brown was VERY different:he and Bud Freeman had styles of their own that 
seemed to
show no influence of some of the black sax players of the time.In some circles 
here,Condon is lo-
oked down upon.He was a "major figure" during the so-called "Mouldy Fig-Be Bop" 
"wars of
the mid '40s.I've got a CD here of Coleman Hawkins from 1943 and he's playing 
with Condon
and,of all people,Woody Herman.Herman and Condon were not fans of each 
other.Satchmo and
Jack Teagarden were also in the band.This lineup was as strange as the lineups I 
saw in Playboy
Magazine's All Star bands of the early 1970s.Imagine Paul McCartney and Lionel 
Hampton in the
same band.They were.

________________________________
From: Tim Huskisson <timhuskisson at btinternet.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tue, November 30, 2010 6:25:44 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

To Dan Van Landingham (Sorry I can't find a way of sending this to you
personally) 
So, just briefly - since this is off (78s) topic....
Swing and Condon style Dixieland is my forte, but here in the UK, there
seems to be more demand for the 'Trad' Jazz repertoire. The British
traditional Jazz scene of the 1950s/early'60s is still going strong for a
sizeable but ageing audience. At least, it's been my experience to get more
gigs in bands that include a Banjo player!
I played a Selmer (Paris) Centered-Tone Clarinet for a few years. If you can
find one, they are great for Jazz but you have to watch your intonation. I
use an American Selmer Signet Soloist now. Surprisingly good for an
intermediate model.
Talking of Tommy Dorsey, his clarinettist, Johnny Mince is one of my
favourites. 

Tim Huskisson

-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Dan Van Landingham
Sent: 01 December 2010 01:30
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Monty Sunshine RIP

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 
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l 
> 
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