[Trombone-l] Fw: TD Bio

[Bill Dinwiddie]

2nd try.

BD

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Dinwiddie" <billdin at comcast.net>
To: "List Trombone" <TROMBONE-L at LISTPROC.SAMFORD.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 12:15 PM
Subject: TD Bio


>I would like to recommend a very good book to the list members. The book is 
>"Tommy Dorsey, Livin' In A Great Big Way" by Peter J. Levinson. DaCapo 
>Press, 2005, 354 pg.
>
> I don't read a lot of books about musicians, but when a friend lent this 
> one to me, I went through it like a hot knife through butter. Tommy was an 
> unbelievable character, sometimes violent, sometimes extremely generous 
> and kind. He fought with his brother, Jimmy, like they were two pit bulls. 
> So many famous musicians played in the Dorsey bands that virtually every 
> page has stories about players whose names are recognizable by most who 
> have read about the Swing era.
>
> The other thing that I find fascinating is the descriptions in this book 
> about a time in music which has, unfortunately, long past. The Swing/Big 
> band era was a time in the music business that almost cannot be compared 
> to any other period....certainly not today's world. The opportunities for 
> good players were almost unlimited. At one point, the author says that, in 
> a single year, over $110 million dollars were raked in by the hundreds of 
> bands that were active across the country. $110 million sounds like chump 
> change today, but this was in an era when $125 a week was very big bucks 
> (this is the figure that is mentioned as the amount being paid by Tommy to 
> Sinatra and Buddy Rich). The average wage earner was probably making more 
> like 20 or 30 bucks a week or less. It was also the time of the Depression 
> and WWII, neither of which seemed to slow the business down one bit.
>
> All in all, and great read.
>
> Bill Dinwiddie
> billdin at comcast.net
>
>
>