From PW to Carl with love.

[Paul Warburton]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d...-a-brain_music
Here's a Daily Motion clip of my dear old friend and mentor Carl Fontana doing "If I Only Had A Brain". I love the way he changes that one melody note in the A sections to make it his own.
His quote of "La Cucharacha" began as a little private joke between the two of us, when he tried to start a sextet with Joe Rumano on tenor (sometimes, Art Pepper on alto, depending on sobriety issues) Sammy Noto on trumpet, Frank Strazzeri on piano, Chiz Harris on drums and myownself on bass. He brought me out from Aspen and put me up in a very cheap, but colorful motel in Vegas that was wall-to-wall cockroach city. We both used the quote relentlessly, up until one night when he found a way to squeeze it in to a VERY slow "Lush Life". I told him that night..."You win...it's yours"
As you can hear, he used it up until the end.

PS...just did a search. I posted this before.....without the story...sorry, age is hell. Anyway, hope you liked the story.

[Mark Perna]

My first instrument was trombone (and, nowadays, I play it once a year whether I need the practice or not ). Carl Fontana and Bill Watrous were my first two real instrumental heroes. In the pre-CD days, I'd periodically take a train to NYC from Harrisburg,PA where I grew up and scour the record stores for Fontana and Watrous albums. Both those guys were huge influences on me. You're a lucky guy, Paul.

Is that a pre-pubescent John Goldsby playing bass back there?

mark

[salcott]

My first instrument was euphonium, with a bit of trombone and tuba on the side. I've always been partial to trombonists who don't try to make the instrument sound like it has valves. Carl was one of my faves, along with Frank Rosolino. Vic Dickenson, George Masso, Jimmy Knepper, and Albert Manglelsdorff are up there as well.

[relacey]

Very, very nice. I can't watch it though. The audio is our of sync with the video over my connection and it's driving me nuts. So audio only for me.

I was a 'bone player up through my first year in college then work and study sidelined that. I still love the sound. Part of what makes the bass appealing to me is the similarity (bass clef charts and positions not frets and just overall coolness ), but now I can practice without disturbing the neighborhood. And there is more demand for bass players in the area where I live. Although, when I played trombone, nobody asked me if I'd rather play the flute.

[Sam Sherry]

Originally Posted by relacey

I was a 'bone player up through my first year in college . . . there is more demand for bass players in the area where I live.

An old one: "Definition of an optimist? A trombonist with a beeper."

Originally Posted by relacey

Part of what makes the bass appealing to me is the similarity . .

Indeed, both DB and trombone are properly categorized as Manually-Operated Variable Pitch-Approximators.

[relacey]

Yeah, I started to steal your inadvertent microtonalist tag, that says it all.

[chop_1992]

Originally Posted by calivox

Is that a pre-pubescent John Goldsby playing bass back there?

mark

Er . . . yes. I think it was about 15 years ago. The info on the video says 2007, but Carl left us in 2003. I think we did this project with Don Menza and Carl in the mid-90s. He was a giant of the trombone—great musician.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by chop_1992

Er . . . yes. I think it was about 15 years ago. The info on the video says 2007, but Carl left us in 2003. I think we did this project with Don Menza and Carl in the mid-90s. He was a giant of the trombone—great musician.

I knew it was you John, of course, and hoped you would chime in. As per, you sound beautiful. Who's chart? Don's?

Mark...beyond Lucky. We were doing a Dick Gibson jazz party here in Denver in the 80's...Carl knocked on my hotel room door and said: "Pack it up WarBUTTON (I called him CARLOTTA) we got a gig tonight. Me, you, Frank, (Rosolino) and Tommy (Flanagan). He'd checked our concert schedules and saw none of us were on that night. Ray WAS on.....boy was he pissed. (of course not, but I razzed him anyway) It was something...no drummer, but still amazing. We made $60 a man for four hours, plus all we could drink. The club owner lost his ass, but what a night. Gibson heard about it and he WAS pissed.

[chop_1992]

Thanks, Paul. They were all Don's charts—I think the project was called "Jazz Vegas."