[Trombone-l] Billy May

[Samuel Keyser]

Glad to find other admirers of Billy May.  I don't think there was a  
better big band arranger working.  He was simple but full of  
surprises, always inventive and never without a laugh.  One of the  
great demonstrations of his talent was with a little known set of  
arrangements based on bugle calls, of all things!!  That was a  
challenge.  How can you be interesting on one chord.

When he died a few years ago, I was chagrined to read the obituary in  
the Boston Globe.  The writer didn't really have a sense of how good  
he was.  It was both disappointing and sad that that great arranger  
went so gently into that good night.

Another comment.  He not only was a superb arranger but he always  
managed to put together bands that were up to his arrangements.  First  
rate players who could do justice to first-rate arrangements.

A typical May move was in his arrange of "You're Driving me Crazy."   
After a simple and straightforward first 8 bars, in the repeat he  
suddenly introduces one bar of absolute mayhem before returning  
sedately to the main melody.  The musicians who played that ought to  
be cast in bronze.

Jay