JIM DANDY TO THE RESCUE LAVERN BAKER 1957

[Tim56]

[Tim56]

Many memories from this one! I have a life long friend that I met on a surf trip when this was playing on the radio. He is a fine piano player! When I visit him, we play for many hours if we can! No one has called the cops yet!

[Michael]

Thanks for sharing this video Tim, my parents loved this song and played it all the time; just had to click “like” on my youtube channel. Do you know who Lavern Baker’s Sax player was at the time? I think that would make a cool Saxophone cover for sure 🙂 Do you still get together with your Piano-playing friend? If anyone does call the Cops, he can play something for the Police too LOL

[Tim56]

Mike: We play all the time when I go surfing in Huntington Beach where he lives. I’ll ask Don Peake if he knows the sax guy! For fun, look up donpeakemusic.com. The guy has done so much. He is in the musicians hall of fame in Memphis. He called me 2 weeks ago about some car info. I told him, he called at the right time. Had my sax in my lap. He said, what do you have for me? So, I played about half of Harlem Nocturne by way of cell phone. I stop. He says, very nice! However I want you to fall off that A and off the F. He listens and rearranges tho tune at the same time. He is amazing. You have heard all of his stuff. TV, Ray Charles lead guitar guy from 64 to 74. On and on! Chucks neighbors like to hear all the old stuff. It’s fun!

[Michael]

Sounds like a really nice guy Tim, he actually calls you?!? I’ll check out his website as soon as I can. That’s an added plus for you to have his friendship. That was really nice of him to give you some quick tips like that….and he was able to provide some pointers by hearing your Sax over the cell phone too? LOL Seems like he’s got great ears to say the least–I can’t even make out 1/2 of what someone says to me when I’m talking on a Cell phone LOL
Sometimes is “sickening” when you hear players who are as good as they are, because it “hits” me of how far I have to go and sometimes it feels like reaching a really high-level of playing is “unattainable”. What I mean by that is, guys like that are so good, you would think they we’re born with a piano/saxophone LOL Many of those guys literally grew up with their instrument and have never known anything else….and they make it look so easy; and here are the rest of us struggling just to get a smooth, even tone LOL

[Tim56]

Don started playing in Jr. high school. Do get the book “The Wrecking Crew”!! By Eric Hartman. Amazon, $13 bucks!! You will learn where all the music that I grew up with came from. All the guys that played, like, Glen Campbell. Mason Williams, Steve Douglas, Jacky Kelso, Plas Johnson Nino Tempo, Hal Blain, Ray Pullman, Carroll Kay, Tommy Tedesco, Al Kaiola, Phil Spector, Leon Russel, Barney Kessel. The list goes on. All great musicians! Get it! I’ve know Don since 1960. Met him when he was playing in a bar we hung at. He was there with the Dragon brothers. You know, Capt and Taneal. We were in the Coast Guard together Check his site. He raced mini coopers too. The old ones. Have fun with it! Oh, about the cell phone, He said my tone was outstanding! At some point I will get with him in his recording studio in Hollywood. I was told not to start by some of the people on sax on the web. Said I was too old! Sell all your stuff! You will never be able to play any good! I don’t use that site. One guy there, Pete Thomas from England was very nice to me however. He has a great site. Have not been there for a long time! Tim

[Michael]

So you’ve been told that you we’re too old to start learning to play the Saxophone? That’s a bunch of garbage talk and good for you to prove them wrong. Sure, we all wanna get good; who doesn’t? But I think lots of folks forget that it’s about having fun. For myself, if I’m going to “crash and burn” and make mistakes while learning to play something, or for Johnny to critique on the blog, then I’m going to have fun doing it. I think if it’s about having fun, good things happen. All of those guys that you’re mentioning above (sure sounds like you have lots of connections…and I’m jealous too LOL), if you talk to them they’ll probably tell you that they started learning the Saxophone because they loved the sound of it and they had fun learning to play it–That was their focus and good things happened for them because of it. I’ve read online interviews of many professional Sax players, and virtually all of them said that for a good number of years they had no concept of being a professional player…..that thought didn’t occur to them until later on. At first, they just loved to play and their playing ability developed because of it. I’ve seen some videos on youtube of Pete Thomas, seems like a pretty cool guy 🙂
I would love to see some kind of video from you Tim, doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.

[john]

Yes Pete Thomas is a good guy. The SOTW folks hooked us up and he sent me his new CD at the time (this was several yeas ago) I had an online radio channel plying nothin but sax music and so he forwarded his cd with this being the video he was promoting at the time:

PS
He has disabled embedding of this video so you need to watch it on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulLf4jDA2_Y

[Tim56]

Mike: I’ll do the videos soon. My son has a phone that has more power than my lap top. I sent one to my daughter for her birthday. It came out well. However it was my wife’s apple smart # 6. She could not send it to my email??? We have cable for our server. A conflict with the apple product??? Don’t ask?? I have no clue. So, when my son gets the time? We will do some. I was told it would be hard to get an airline pilot job without a degree?? I flew for 37 years for 3 airlines Catalina out of Long Beach CA. Western and then Delta after a merge in 87. So much for you can’t do that! I rode big waves on a surfboard the short board and big wave guys said I could not do it. Wrong! I sent you those pics. Those are the boards I am talking about. Big deal! You tube, the Challengers.I grew up with those guys. They were 2 years behind me in high school. I stay in touch with the Bass player.Randy Nauret. Google him. All kind of info will come up. He is all over facebook. He is still involved with music. Give me an email with your phone. I’ll tell you more. Tim

[Michael]

HA! That’s a cool video of Pete Thomas 🙂 Thanks for sharing that one Johnny–that was something 🙂 I think I remember seeing something about a Saxophone radio station that you operated Johnny from your other side johnnyferreira.com I had actually tried to access that Radio Station and was unable to get anything, so you don’t operate it anymore? That would have been something to listen to on the radio.

Does Pete Thomas still sell his CDs? It’s funny timing that Johnny and Tim mention Pete Thomas–I’m working on a complete 100% Improvised Saxophone Instrumental of the Blues Brothers “Shotgun Blues” and I found the attached video of Pete Thomas teaching the Adderley Trill, pretty simple technique how he trills/scoops the notes, and for my Saxophone Instrumental of “Shotgun Blues” by the Blues Brothers, I found a place for the Adderley trill within the chord that leads into Saxophone solo, starting at about the 1:54 mark of the other video I attached; which is for the custom backing track that I created/edited. With the cpu, I removed the guitar from the backing track in the middle of the song from timer 2:00 to 2:54, which will feature the Saxophone. The rest of the song will be like the Saxophone/Guitar kind of “talking” back and forth to each other. I felt that it was a good track to apply Johnny’s pointers of keeping the licks/riffs simple. Actually, I think that video of Voodoo Chill by Pete is also a great example of simple licks/riffs that Johnny was talking about.

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