Like many 802 members, I’ve always turned first to Bill Crow’s The Band Room when reading Allegro and was saddened when Bill retired his column this year. I certainly can’t match his experience or connections, but I thought it might be fun to share some things that happened to me or stories I’ve heard from other musicians. (I got permission from Bill to give it a try!) Hope you like these! Give me feedback (and more stories) at noyneks@gmail.com.

Dave Riekenberg studied with and (like many of us) admired Joe Henderson.  A lesser-known fact is that Joe played briefly with Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1971. Joe told Dave that when he joined the group everybody said “Joe — how can you do this?” When he left the group four months later everybody said “Joe — how can you do this?”

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I was talking to Scott Robinson about the concept of the space elevator, in which a tether would be attached to a satellite above the equator, allowing an elevator to crawl up and bring cargo into orbit without the need for a rocket. Scott’s response was “I want to write the space elevator music.”

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John Chudoba grew up in Chicago as a huge Cubs fan, and attended a lot of games. Cornettist Ted Butterman led a Dixieland band at Wrigley Field for many years, so John often heard him play. As John watched Ted performing he started to notice that his fingerings didn’t line up with the notes that John was hearing. He eventually found out that as a kid Ted had a turntable that ran slow, and had learned many tunes by ear from the recordings. Later on when he realized that he had learned them all a half step flat he had a cornet made in the key of B so that he could play in the right keys. When John asked one of the other cats in the band if he could confirm the story that Ted was playing a cornet in B, he replied “Ted lives his whole life in B!”

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When my son Ian was about three years old I got a last-minute call for a jingle from Amy Sheldon. I told her that I was home watching him and my wife was at work so unfortunately I couldn’t do it. She said “we love kids — bring him along!” When we got there it was decided that he would hang out in the control room, since that seemed like the most toddler-proof place. Within 30 seconds he found the main power supply for all of the studio gear and switched it off, plunging us briefly back to the era of acoustic recording.

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It is a fairly common occurrence (at least with certain employers) to play long club dates with absolutely no food being offered to the musicians. I recall one such seven-hour gig where, on the way out of the venue at the end of the night, I grabbed an entire baguette from a buffet table near the exit. After putting my horns in the car and preparing to “dine” I discovered that the enticing French bread was in fact very realistic-looking plastic.

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And speaking of bread, James Rogers had the opposite experience. He got a call from a retired schoolteacher booking a horn section for a passion project. He asked if James could bring tenor and bass trombone to midtown to record the next day. He said he was free, but asked about the bread situation. The composer said, “You need bread to do this?” James replied that he wasn’t going to lug his horns to midtown during rush hour without any “bread.” The composer asked, “White or wheat?” “Wheat,” James replied, and sure enough at the end of the session, after paying everyone (actual money) he handed James a nice large artisanal loaf of wheat bread. When the other players inquired, the guy replied, “He said he wouldn’t play without it.”

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Send your music stories & anecedotes to Steve Kenyon at: noyneks@gmail.com

Personal essays published in Allegro (including MEMBER TO MEMBER) do not necessarily represent the opinions of the union or its members, officers or staff. To give feedback on this article or submit something to Allegro for consideration, send to allegro@local802afm.org.