They’re asking for ludicrous, ridiculous kinds of tunes. It could be “Johnson Rag,” or “Don’t you have any Russ Morgan pieces?” or they’re always getting your tunes mixed up with someone else’s, so you get requests for “Green Eyes” or “Frenesi” or “In The Mood.” And they get some very terse replies like “No,” or “He quit the business,” or “I’ll play that when I get to the big band in the sky.” It becomes a kind of standup routine. Certainly anyone has a right to ask for anything, but I can’t for the life of me think why I have to do those tunes.
–Woody Herman, 1976, from Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers.
Recent Comments
Carlita Kaunda on Meredith d’Ambrosio: A Plug—And A Protest
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