[Trombone-l] Billy May

[Bob Koester]

Billy wrote the show when I was at the Tropicana.  Twelve times a week (fourteen if I worked the off night) and never tiring.  What a talent!!!

 

Bob




Bob Koester, President MSI Financial 

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> From: keyser at MIT.EDU
> To: trombone-l at samford.edu
> Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 14:23:41 -0400
> Subject: [Trombone-l] Billy May
> 
> 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
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