Didn't Get the Coronation Gig?

[Ace]

OK, so we missed out playing the Coronation gig. But, have any of us played for other royalty or big-time political leaders? The closest I have come to royalty was an honor guard in 1960 played by my 21st Army Band for Crown Prince Akihito of Japan and his new bride, Michiko. Any other stories?

[the elephant]

In the US Army Band of New York City, I played ceremonial music for then-President Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), François Mitterrand (President of France), Jacques Chirac (Prime Minister of France), Corazón Aquino (President of the Philippines), Brian Mulroney (Canadian Prime Minister), Miguel de la Madrid (President of Mexico), and (at that time) Prince Charles, as well as former US Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon. I also played the live background music for the 1987 Miss USA Pageant on the Boardwalk of Atlantic City, and afterward "The Donald" came over and shook all our hands and gave us each $50 in gaming chips to "enjoy my casino". I also played for or with dozens of stars and famous folks like Bob and Dolores Hope, Bill Cosby, Lee Iacocca, George Steinbrenner, and George C. Scott. Fort Hamilton was a heck of a great duty station. Of course, we played for Ed Koch so many times (probably 75 times in three years) that he recognized my face as "one of 'my' Army Band guys" at a freelance gig I played where he made a speech.

While attending North Texas, I played for HM Elizabeth II, then-President George H.W. Bush, and Juan Carlos I (King of Spain).

In my thirty years here in Mississippi I have not had the opportunity to play for royalty or political muckity-mucks. For some strange reason, that sort doesn't tend to visit here that often, heh, heh, heh…

[Ace]

Wow, Wade------your Army Band experiences are astonishing. That's a record hard to beat. Tough duty. You must miss it. Or, not.

Ace

[bloke]

=====================

To me, Nixon is the most fascinating person on your list...

I consider him to be an enigma.

Most of the rest: It was fairly obvious that they are who were they are/were.

Gerald (a Michiganer, who was also an Univ. of Mich alum / foobaw hero) had stepped into the presidency when I was up at Interlochen, and he was scheduled to visit the Camp. A few days prior, some Secret Service dudes were scoping the place out.

A trombone friend (ok...with an afro) and I were sitting on the front steps of the dorm, and this 6'3" Dick Butkus-lookin' dude came up (wearing a BRIGHT YELLOW SUIT AND TIE ) and struck up a conversation with us. We mostly just engaged him - responding to his questions/observations/etc., but (me - being an a$$hole) I couldn't help to ask (when he was about to break it off) whether Jerry's nice to them or not. ...He cracked a small smile, and walked off.

My brother (who lived in Thailand - working in-and-later-for-the-Army during 'nam) told me some stuff about Hope that made me intensely dislike him, and (when he showed up later that summer to recite his list of jokes - and even though I knew how to sneak into Kresge) I didn't attend.
(I'm posting too much crap bumping off Wade's post, YET remembering stuff...) A couple of weeks later, Benny Goodman came up (with Lionel Hampton, Urbie Green, etc.) and played, but - as my sister had asked me to break camp and be in her wedding - had I bought a ticket to that, I wouldn't have had enough left to buy the r/t plane ticket to Memphis and back to Traverse City...so I missed out on that one as well. I did see them chowing down in the cafeteria - eating the same horrible slop that was fed to the rest of us.

Carter...
Our kolig marchin' band was in NOLA (Memphis State vs. Tulane game - fall of '76), and Carter paid to parade through the French Quarter (google tells me that it was Saturday, Oct. 30th) - throwing those stupid plastic doubloons with his picture, name, and '76 on them. We were pretty pissed that he (Secret Service) were blocking our egress (as we were interested in being on the other side of the street). He hit me in the head with one of those damn things...which pissed me off more. (Today, I wonder if it would be worth anything to a Carterphile?) I threw it back...probably not a smart move, but no consequences.

[the elephant]

Wow, Wade------your Army Band experiences are astonishing. That's a record hard to beat. Tough duty. You must miss it. Or, not.

Ace

Best years of my life. That was a damned fine band, too. It was regularly ranked by the Office of the Chief of Army Bands as the #1 or #2 band in the (at that time) 36-unit "Post Band" system. We were about on par with the Field Band or maybe West Point. (Not as good as TUSAB, though. Not by a long shot.) The other one always at the top at that time was the band stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco. It moved around over time, but those two bands were both packed with outstanding players who figured out how to live within the Post Band system and never have to pull a Divisional or Basic Training Band gig. If you were a great player and knew the ropes, it was possible to put in thirty years of duty in only four or five excellent bands and play mostly concert band literature. I loved it.

[the elephant]

All the people were at a distance as we were always playing ceremonial music.

Except for Mr. Nixon.

He spoke to us and shook a bunch of hands. I guess he was still mending fences, even twelve years later. The Secret Service boys visited us each time to clear us for "Temporary Limited Presidential Level Access" (meaning we could be in the same room as him on the indicated dates, only.) Except for Nixon. For him, the FBI visited our homes and interviewed our friends and families. It was super creepy. This was about a month in advance. I have no idea why it was the FBI and a different system/level for Nixon, except that maybe they feared for his life more than the others…?

George Steinbrenner actually conducted us. It was an absolutely surreal experience, both during and after. Plain and simple: the man is an oddball. I always loved it when they made fun of him on Seinfeld.

Playing for/with Bob Hope was one of the thrills of my life, as was playing "Hail to the Chief" for Ronald Reagan.

[Three Valves]

Carter inauguration parade in DC. Can’t remember what we played.

But it was cold and felt like it would never end.

I played for Delaware bigwig politicos. Everyone knows Biden.

Senator Roth (The IRA guy)

Governor Pete duPont (Unsuccessful presidential candidate)

I played for the Alexis I duPont HS band in Greenville, DE and U of DE in Newark, DE.

[bone-a-phone]

When I was in the Atlantic Fleet Command (affectionately called CINCLANTFLT) band, I played for Kaspar Weinberger (Reagan's sec'y of defense) and George Bush the Elder (when he was VP). Those were the big names that stood out to me. We also played an endless list of NATO dignitaries when they came to visit the NATO facility in Norfolk, VA in the mid/late 80s. We had special days for each country, and played a parade for each of them every year (I was there 4 years). I don't remember any names. I was early 20s at that time, and not impressed by much, same as most punkasskids.

We also hosted a band from the Soviet Union just before it collapsed. They parked their ship right at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk. That was a sight. They traded everything they had for blue jeans and peanut butter. I have several hammer and sickle lapel pins.

[bloke]

I sort of think Nixon was a fairly nice guy who was paranoid yet deservedly so, because those who opposed him were absolutely out to get him (just as with any other president).
I don't know if he knew about what Gordon Liddy and those other guys that broke into the Democrat headquarters at the Watergate Hotel were actually going to do. Were I them, I wouldn't have told Nixon to what extent nor what they were planning to do.
I think Nixon was particularly targeted because he realized that LBJ's war was a really stupid/hopeless thing, was costing way too many lives, was costing way too much money, was way too unpopular (all: DUH), but him shutting it down was going to cost the military industrial complex a ton of future profits.
As a Republican, Nixon was certainly no conservative. Price freezes are anything but conservative economic tactics.
I don't view him as a really good guy nor a hero. No president did everything right and no president did everything for purely good reasons, and he certainly didn't. I still view him as an enigma. Reagan...I'm thinking he was elected four years too late and was physically harmed far more than anyone ever let on (via that bullet next to his heart). He did - however - tell some damn good jokes. I remember hearing about that Carter-era "Hostage Crisis" (over the radio, while waiting in line with a friend to purchase 18 holes of golf). My friend and I were both still young enough to be sent off to war, he drove a Camaro with too large of an engine and I drove a Chevy pickup with something similar. While playing the first few holes, we made a bunch of jokes about going over there (taking our Chevys with us) to patriotically fight for oil.
Anyone who runs for office has an out of control ego, probably is a schemer of some sort, and is probably suffering from some sort of mental illness... Via my amateur (non-certified/non-peer-reviewed) observations, this even includes kids who ran for student council, many of which also ended up running for public office later...
... of course, that new King Charlie guy doesn't have an out of control ego.

[kingrob76]

I got a lot, but the coolest one was getting to play at the residence of the Vice President during the Bush administration. Yes, I got to at Dan Quayle's house. A brass quintet I played with got a gig to perform background music for a luncheon held by the Women's Republican Club (or something like that) and Marilyn Quayle was the host / keynote. We got to meet her after the event and she was maybe the nicest person I've ever met in my life. She told us she really enjoyed our music (which had a lot of references to her home state of Indiana) and she told us she wanted us to come and play a reception at the house.

Um, the house? Yeah, the Naval Observatory in DC, which is the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. And they actually followed through an booked us for the gig. Now, this would have been 1989-1990, and the world was a much different place. When showed up we just walked up to the security booth at the end of the driveway and gave security our info (we had to provide name, DOB, and SSN beforehand). The family dogs came up to greet us, various labs and such, like 5 dogs. The guy at the gate asked what I had in the bag (Altieri bag holding my Piggy) so I told him it was a tuba. He asked me to open the bag, saw a tuba, and that was it. That thing could've been filled with C4 for all he knew. We were then escorted to a waiting area in the basement. Compared to today it was like night and day when it came to security posture.

Now, the residence is an old Victorian house. LOTS of little rooms, basically. They put is in a room that had a table, kitchen cabinets, a refrigerator, and some storage. Extra kitchen space / cupboard type room. The orange Thermos jug (pumpkin sized) on top of one of the cabinets had "QUAYLE" written on it in magic marker. The room was just filled will all kind of family stuff. Now, we were there a long time, like 75 minutes, just hanging out. There's NO ONE watching us. No one even checking on us. Yes, the world is a different place back then. So, eventually I opened the fridge. I'm 22 or 23, so screw it - what are they going to do? It's full of food - leftovers, food to be cooked, etc. And there it was - half eaten birthday cake. Based on the dates I believe it was leftover cake from Marilyn's birthday. I had to try it - so I did. Ordinary birthday cake, but, one belonging to the Vice President's family.

Eventually we were taken upstairs and set up to play in an alcove. Vice President Quayle and his small "entourage" comes in to meet us, Marilyn introduces us to him - she remembered our names! Now, you know all the things they used to say about Dan Quayle, how he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed? Yeah. All true. As soon as he started talking it was apparent. BUT, he was very nice, pleasant, made a really dumb joke, then went to do his grip-n-grins in front of some fireplace or something (we were just doing background music). He felt more like an actor who wasn't on stage yet more than the Vice President.

Today, those gigs never happen. Members of one of the DC service bands cover those jobs in uniform, probably a string quartet or a woodwind quintet for the residence and a brass quintet for the luncheon. But back then the DC bands weren't fighting for their existence every few years and didn't need the numbers they now seek every year, so gigs like that could be had from time to time.

And that is how I stole cake from the Federal government.

[the elephant]

… Marilyn Quayle was the host / keynote…

When I played for the King of Spain it was at the 1992 World's Fair in Seville. The US State Department invited us to perform at the US pavilion on "United States Day" at the fair, and they paid for us to get there and back. Mrs. Quayle was the Keynote speaker/presenter, and some interesting things happened, regarding the entertainment. It was not something one would easily forget.

… maybe the nicest person I've ever met…

Yes, I got that impression, too. She was extremely nice and engaging. The hosts of the show we performed were Tony Randall and Barbara Eden. After we finished I walked up to them to be an idiot fan (as lowkey and cool about it as I could be, though) and Mrs. Quayle walked up to comment on my silver 188. She was just hanging around waiting for a limo to take her and the King to some function, and she just seemed to be looking for conversation with the two stars. She asked me two or three polite questions about my school and the tuba, and that was that. I instantly became a conversational observer at that point.

… she remembered our names!

Sometime around 2002, she was the main guest on the "Jim Bohannon Show" (an old nighttime AM radio talk show). I decided to call in. I told the phone guy my story, so he added me to the queue of callers, and I eventually got on the air.

She never got my name at the gig, but I reminded her of the World's Fair and her speech to the King, which she remembered quite well from a decade earlier, and quite fondly, as being "a really big deal for me because the 'Second Lady' does not get to represent the US to foreign heads of state all that often". I asked her if she remembered chatting with Ms. Eden and Mr. Randall, and she did. There was a pause, and she said live, on the air: Were you the tuba player in the orchestra that I spoke with? I remember you! You had been in the Army and were studying music on your GI Bill.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

As soon as he started talking it was apparent.

I agree. I am pretty sure that, while he had a campaign manager, and a publicist and all that stuff, SHE was the guiding force behind his career. She is a mighty sharp person.

[martyneilan]

In 2005 a day after I graduated with my B.M.E., I had the opportunity to go on a music trip to Amman, Jordan. We were going to be spending 10 days at the Amman Baptist School and working with the students there, as well as spending some time at the national conservatory. One of Queen Rania's children was graduating from that high school, so we got to play at the graduation for the queen (and all the other parents in attendance.) Apparently, the Amman Baptist School was one of the most well regarded private high schools in Jordan and people of all religious persuasions sent their children there.

[bloke]

the guiding force behind his career

stepping away from "rubbing elbows with celebs" for just one post...

I have a nephew like this.

He's smart as a whip, but (at least, to me) doesn't seem particularly self-driven...yet his Dad pushed him to excel in football, and his Mom pushed him to excel in academics. He ended up at West Point playing on the team (a starter, not just "on the team"). When up there, an ambitious young "Jersey shore" lady evaluated him, latched onto him, and continued along the same tack as his parents. With her nudging him along, he's involved in quite a career (no longer in the military...I'm thinking that a close call with an IED in a Humvee in Afghanistan cured him of a military career), these days.

I suspect that it's very often the case that the wife - seeing the potential, and (via nature) desiring as much security as possible - pushes the husband along.

celebs/muckety-mucks/etc:
Any of us who are hired to play misc. jobs or work in orchestras with $2M - $125M budgets are going to end up being around famous/celeb peeps from time-to-time. I avoid bothering them. They have their job, and I have mine. Of course, if they actually walk up to me, I'm going to be equally gracious (just as they are being). When hired to do that silly Hallmark movie, the hired banjo guy was always trying to chat up the "stars" (to what end?). If an orchestra, chatting them up (in my view) are the jobs of the MD, personnel manager, executive director, etc. Of course, 100% of them are going to be kind/polite when approached...They understand that (even if they desperately need to go take a crap) they need to be polite/kind/courteous/generous/gracious, and to seem genuinely interested in those who approach them. I have a very longtime friend (notably/remarkably mediocre) who has lived their life dating/marrying beautiful/wealthy-family women, driving super flashy cars (c/o wife's family), seeking employment (school teacher) at fancy/upper-crust schools (where band is parenthetical) where fancy peep's kids go to school and (yup) having his picture taken with celebs...oh yeah: and - defacto conversation being - boasting about all of this. I recall an end-of-year concert (if orchestras are run properly, the biggest concert of the season is the LAST concert of the year) where Mr. Yo-Yo Ma was on board. I was working my way through the backstage crowd to get to my loading-dock-parked Toyota, out of there, and back to blokeplace. Sure enough, that friend had wormed his way backstage (with rich/orchestra-patron friends - probably parents at his school - who probably bought him tickets) and was getting his picture made with Mr. Ma.

[travisd]

And that is how I stole cake from the Federal government.

Don't Presidents/Vice-Presidents have to pay for their own (regular) food in their residences? (Meaning, other than state dinner official type things). Technically I think you stole from Dan Quayle.

I have vague memories of a large chunk of the Maryland marching band going to the Kennedy Center to play for a Quayle event there, probably 1991-1992 for the upcoming election. Somewhere is a group pic with him back stage. Nothing more memorable than that though. No idea what we played - anthem maybe?

[arpthark]

I played keyboard on "Brown Eyed Girl" for former KY Governor Ernie Fletcher as a part of a Governor's Ball event in 2006.

Always a ton of bigwigs at the Derby and the World Equestrian Games, so I'm sure somebody important heard me playing sousaphone once.

[bort2.0]

And that is how I stole cake from the Federal government.

Don't Presidents/Vice-Presidents have to pay for their own (regular) food in their residences? (Meaning, other than state dinner official type things). Technically I think you stole from Dan Quayle.

I have vague memories of a large chunk of the Maryland marching band going to the Kennedy Center to play for a Quayle event there, probably 1991-1992 for the upcoming election. Somewhere is a group pic with him back stage. Nothing more memorable than that though. No idea what we played - anthem maybe?

Dr Sparks would roll us out to anywhere if it meant a moment of attention. I can't remember half of it, though!

Pretty sure I gave Dick Vitale a high five though

[the elephant]

tl;dr "stuff"

Yeah, I have played *with* (and not *for*) many so-called stars since I started gigging in 1983. (Wow, that is 40 years this year. Wow…) I tend to avoid them. I hate it when I am buttonholed in the parking lot or backstage by well-meaning folks, but I always stand around and chat if they want to. As I live so far from the hall now I tend to get packed and out as quickly as possible to both avoid these interactions and the crush of players trying to exit our parking lot.

If I interact with a guest artist, it is during a break at a rehearsal, when they are already chatting with someone. I usually just tell them that it is a pleasure working with them, or I thank them for performing with our orchestra. I smile and walk off before they can do much more than acknowledge my comment. I figure the sycophants are already bugging them enough, so I make my point and scoot. None of them have any desire to absorb groveling banter from a tuba player.

In a few cases when their presentation (a show, or a concerto) does not include the tuba and it is really good, I will make a crack about how much I enjoyed what they did, but that they needed to do something with tuba in the instrumentation next time. One time the guest was surprised that her program was not for "full orchestra", and the next time we booked her it DID have tuba parts in the book. I would love to take credit for that change, but I know it was just that her arranger wanted the tuba sound for some of the pieces and that she had no idea where the tuba would sit on stage anyway. Heh, heh…

That woman could SING, too, man…

The two exceptions to my rule of "Leave the G.A. Alone" were:

1.) When we recently played with Nicholas Payton, as we actually sat in the Green Room for a half hour before rehearsal and he asked me a lot of questions about his tuba parts and playability, and whether I enjoyed any of the pieces more than others, or if the part was not idiomatic. He has a reputation for being highly disorganized and a major PITA "diva" to have to "handle" when he is a guest artist. (Our Ops Manager told me he called him at 2:30 a.m. requesting a different hotel because he did not like his room or the guy at the desk. True Story.) But he was really cool with me, and an interesting guy to chat with about arranging.

2.) When this guy was one of our guests. I *had* to spend some time with him…

[bloke]

One of the most talented singers I've played donuts behind was Olivia Newton-John.
I can't remember when this was...possibly somewhere around 2012 (??)

Though already through one bout of cancer (and probably was beginning to come back), she was still slim, still gorgeous (at least, from the distance that I made a point of keeping myself), still very upbeat (in her interactions with her band and with the maestro), still sang her tunes in all the original keys, still sounded like an angel, and still sang perfectly on pitch. I'm certain (from hearing her live) that her recordings were not doctored up, and I also suspect they didn't do very many takes of her tunes in the studio.

Per my previous post, I never approached Ms. N-J, though (lunch break - prior to the dress) my trombone buds and I DID bring our take-out Chinese back to the hall, sat at one of the not-yet-decked-out downstairs (dinner-and-concert) round tables, and listened to her and her band practice their (unplugged, and no P.A. for that rehearsal) "country set", which was much more fun/amazing than seeing only her profile from an obtuse angle, only hearing her through the house P.A., and (me) playing tuba donuts.

She was a true artist, and not just pretty a pop star (though she was extremely pretty).

...I just looked around on google, and found an interview of her from roughly the same time...still gorgeous...
(and no need to post recordings of her singing...Everyone's familiar with those...)

[the elephant]

Linda Ronstadt was my version of your ONJ story. She sang operetta very well, did the Nelson Riddle stuff, made a mariachi album that was excellent and sang pop/rock quite well. And she was cute! I played behind her here sometime around 1994 or 1995. She came to our local music festival and I got to play in the backing group, which was mostly MSO players and her rhythm section and conductor, as well as a few traveling players that the book leaned on very heavily. Her lead trumpeter was a really nice guy with iron chops and wonderful intonation.
__________

The MSO has hosted a lot of great players and singers, but the one that got me the most excited was
Ray Charles. I will never, ever forget that experience. That man was great at what he did. I really need to have more work days like that one. I would not be suffering from such terrible burnout right now if I did. What an energetic singer he was, and his book was actually pretty difficult to nail with the one rehearsal. Lots of tricky rhythms and some less-familiar keys. It was tons of fun to play, though. I (along with one of our flutists) was asked by the promoter and local newspaper to pose with him for a photo that would be in the next day's paper. Standing next to him was really something. He joked around with both Julie and me while they took a handful of photos. Then it was over. I never got a copy of the pic, either. I rue that missed opportunity to this day.

[bloke]

Ray Charles was brought it to open up this highfalutin Memphis suburban facility called "Germantown Performing Arts Center".
The scoring was horns only + rhythm... For whatever reason, it included a tuba.
Yeah...That was fun. Google tells me it was in 1994.
He didn't "hang out", but it was a great experience, and fun to cover his tunes - actually with him doing them.
A couple of years later, he did another concert down on the Mississippi River (where a bunch of Memphis outdoor stuff is done: a place called Tom Lee Park.
' same instrumentation, same tunes, except it was looser and more fun. He "opened up" some of the tunes, and the (local) brass played (not written/not planned/not encouraged - but he seemed fine with it) riffs.

Years after he passed, Bill Cosby (LOL) came to town to do a monologue as a fundraiser for (nothing in Memphis, but) Xavier University (NOLA, not long after the Katrina hurricane).
This was back when the (Katrina refugees + a couple of other Memphians and myself) New Orleans Jazz Ramblers was a busy working NOLA brass/jazz/funk/whatever band. We opened for Cosby, and (when leaving) I recognized Mr. Charles' body guard (Mr. Charles had passed away a couple years prior), and told him (body guard) that I was glad that he see that he had picked up a really good (well...at least for a while - we now know) replacement gig.

Cosby asked the bandleader to see him in his dressing room. The bandleader had a son with MD who (incredibly) lived to age 31 (was still alive at that time, but obviously failing severely, health-wise). Mr Cosby promised the bandleader that he would do something to help out, and the bandleader was really excited about that, but he never heard from Mr. Cosby again.