Hello Dave! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours as well. I noticed your's was the first post in months on this forum - why do you suppose more people don't use this to keep in touch? There are other web groups I follow that have several posts per day or more, but our beloved Vanguard alums seem to be "chat-room-challenged". We know you're out there because we see you at the reunion gatherings, Bill O'C's band gigs, etc.. Why not drop a line here every once in a while so the rest of us know you're OK - particulary those folks who don't live in the Chicago metro area? OK, repeat after me: "My New Year's resolution will be to contribute one post a week to the Vanguard forum!" Hey, it could happen. Do your part - contribute!
Take care all of you,
Jim Grosso 1960-68
Hey Dave,
I'm not out playing as much as I used to, but I did fill in with a Bluegrass band at a bar in Wilmette last week and got into a very interesting discussion with a guy in the audience during the break. We started out talking about Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs, and somehow ended up trying to decide if Leonard Bernstein was truly original, or just derivative of Aaron Copeland - you meet the most interesting people in North Shore bars! I had heard from (I think) Larry Johnson that you were living out in South West Missouri. I read somewhere that there are more full time working musicians in Branson than almost anywhere else in the US other than places like New York and Chicago with symphonies and opera companies etc. Do you get out much to hear live music around your neck of the woods? We're lucky in Chicago with Classical, Jazz, Rock & Roll, Blues, Latin, Country and pretty much any other type of music performance available on a regular basis.
Hope things are going well with you and yours, and that you have a great year. I'm still hoping we can get a few more people involved on the forum here - I guess we'll see how it goes.
Take care,
Jim
Hi Dave,
To answer your question, I starting getting interested in stringed instruments around the time I started dating a female guitar player. Some coincidence, eh? She had lived mostly in the South, so I gave her ice skating lessons and she taught me how to play guitar. 35 years later and our house is filled with 2 upright string basses, 3 electric bass guitars, 2 mandolins, a banjo, a dobro, a piano, a drum set, and I've lost track of how many guitars - at least 6 or 7. (oops - forgot about the xylophone). All 3 of our son's played in bands for as long as I can remember, and still play regularly. They're all out on their own now, and the middle one is a working musician in a pretty good touring band based in Iowa City called "Euforquestra". Check out their web site when you get the chance - he plays vibes, steel drum and bass, and is having the time of his life. Besides touring in the US, he has studied Afro-Cuban percussion in Cuba, and did an extended tour of Taiwan with a steel drum band. He had to turn down a trip to Trinidad with the steel band because he was working on his Masters in percussion at the University of Iowa. Do I sound a little jealous???
The guitar came to me at a time when I'd hit a wall with my horn, and couldn't seem to get any better. I couldn't figure out what the problem was at the time, and was getting frustrated because if anything, I was getting worse instead of improving. Looking back in 20-20 hindsight, it was really pretty simple. I don't know if you remember, but I was a fairly mediocre horn player in the early 60's, and then one day Ed Morrissey brought in Lou Voss to work with the sopranos. One year later I was a soloist and winner of the Horn trophy at the annual Vanguard banquet. I continued to improve until the 1967 season, and then really stagnated. Coincidentally, Lou and Ed quit as our horn instructors in 1967, and the person who could have helped me work through the problems in my technique wasn't available anymore. A good teacher is priceless, no matter what the discipline.
I really hope you find a baritone some time soon - I'll keep my eyes and ears open around here and let you know if I come across anything. We all seem to have this itch that can only get scratched in a musical ensemble. It's almost metaphysical I think, involving things like trust, striving toward a common goal, the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, etc..
How about you other VG Alums out there - can anyone hook Dave up with a reasonably priced 3 valve Bb baritone??