| I lived in Las Vegas for a while back in the 70's, playing on the Johnny
Haig Relief Band. One of the trumpet players was a very good friend of
mine...Lynn Nicholson. Lynn was blessed with a very inquiring mind, and he
and I got into experimenting and making our own valve oil. I was the lead
player on the band. The relief band's job was to play the night off for the
various "house" bands, so we played a different show each night. Part of our
schedule included 3 of the book (or production) shows. For those 3, we would
each (of us trumpet players) play lead on one: Vinnie Tanno on Tuesday at
the Stardust, Lynn on Wednesday at the Dunes, and I would play lead on the
production show at the Tropicana on Friday night. On my show there was a
series of piccolo trumpet solos about an hour in. Well, one of the Fridays
Lynn showed up with a new oil he had made, and deposited a bottle of it on
my music stand, much the same as a cat would leave a dead bird on your
doorstep as a trophy (I'm a cat person). I oiled up the piccolo, and within
10 minutes, to my dismay, it had "set." Since I did this just before the
show started, Lynn now had the job of making my piccolo trumpet work, and he
had only an hour to do it....which meant, for the 1st hour of the show, I
had no 2nd trumpet player....and he had my horn completely apart, trying
desperately to wipe down the valves and casings and re-oil them with my oil.
I have to tell you that the Tropicana show required of the lead trumpet
player 223 notes above high C. It really helped to have a 2nd trumpet.
Happily, Lynn got it ready with about 30 seconds to spare, and I was able to
play my piccolo trumpet solos. So much for experimentation on the job!
George Graham
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Dave Bacon |