“Big Chief” Moore, in New York a Few Weeks Earlier on January 16
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WIND12413 ITF Douglas Yeo ITA.qxp_Layout 1 5/22/17 11:24 AM Page 1 July 2017/ Volume 45, Number 3 / $11.00 Denson Paul Pollard — Page 36 Douglas Yeo Depends on Yamaha “Yamaha trombones are the most flexible, finely engineered and well-made instruments INTERNATIONALINTERNATIONAL I have ever played. They allow my musical voice to be expressed beautifully every time I have a trombone in my hands.” Douglas Yeo Visit 4wrd.it/yeoITA2 for details World-renowned Bass Trombonist ASSOCIATION JOURNAL THETHE QUARTERLYQUARTERLY PUBLICATIONPUBLICATION OFOF THETHE ITAITA Take it, Big Chief! An Appreciation of Russell Moore Photo credit: Timothy Hutchens INTERNATIONAL TROMBONE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL The Quarterly Publication of the ITA Volume 45, Number 3 / July 2017 General News — Page 6 The International Trombone Association is Dedicated to the Artistic Advancement of Trombone Teaching, Performance, and Literature. Contents Features Take It, Big Chief: An Appreciation of Russell Moore ITA JOURNAL STAFF by Douglas Yeo .............................................................. 18 Managing Editor A Conversation with Denson Paul Pollard Diane Drexler by Douglas Yeo ................................................................ 36 3834 Margaret Street, Madison, WI 53714 USA / [email protected] Associate Editors Feature Stories – Bruce Gunia Departments [email protected] Announcements ...................................................................... 2 Jazz – Antonio Garcia President’s Column - Ben van Dijk ........................................... 5 Music Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, 922 Park Avenue, P.O. Box 842004, Richmond, VA 23264-2004 USA / [email protected] General News - Taylor Hughey ................................................. 6 Assistant Editors Orchestral Sectional - Weston Sprott ....................................... 11 News Coordinator - Taylor Hughey Literature - Karl Hinterbichler ................................................. 43 950 S Flower St Apt 213, Los Angeles, CA 90015 [email protected] / 865-414-6816 Literature Reviews - Mike Hall and David Stern ....................... 44 Orchestral Sectional – Weston Sprott Audio/Video Reviews - Micah Everett ..................................... 62 [email protected] Advertiser Index .................................................................... 68 Program & Literature Announcements – Karl Hinterbichler Music Dept., University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA [email protected] / fax 505-256-7006 Literature Reviews – Mike Hall Old Dominion University – 2123 Diehn Center Center for the Performing Arts 4810 Elkhorn Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23529 USA [email protected] / fax 757-683-5056 Audio/Video Reviews – Micah Everett Department of Music, University of Mississippi, PO Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848 USA / [email protected] Advertising Manager – Josh Bynum Hodgson School of Music - University of Georgia 250 River Road, , Room 457, Athens, GA 30602-7278 USA Phone: 706-542-2723 / [email protected] / Fax: 706-542-2773 The International Trombone is the official publication of the International Trombone Association. I.S.S.N. 0145-3513. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual writers and are not necessarily those of the International Trombone Association. All rights reserved. Cover image – Russell Moore. Pomona, New York (1974); photo by Kathy Gardner. Courtesy of Kathy Gardner. Designed by – Jeff McMillen - [email protected] For advertising rates or submission guidelines please visit our website: www.trombone.net Orchestral Sectional — Page 12 International Trombone Association Journal / www.trombone.net -1- Take It, Big Chief! Russell Moore. Vieux Colombier Club, Paris, France (1953). Photo by Jean-Pierre Leloir. -18- International Trombone Association Journal / www.trombone.net International Trombone Association Journal / www.trombone.net -19- An Appreciation of Russell Moore by Douglas Yeo Nobody saw it coming. The Beatles had arrived in the United single set off a scramble by Mickey Kapp to put together a States on February 7, 1964, riding a wave of unprecedented full-length album in order to capitalize on its popularity. But popularity. For fourteen weeks, one of their singles secured that was easier said than done. Trummy Young, Armstrong’s the number-one spot on Billboard’s chart: “I Want to Hold trombonist since 1952, was exhausted from the grueling Your Hand” followed by “She Loves You” and “Can’t Buy touring schedule of the All Stars and left the band after Me Love.” The last thing John, Paul, George, and Ringo a concert in Puerto Rico on New Year’s Day 1964. Two were doing was looking over their shoulders at a 62-year-old weeks later, the All Stars were scheduled to play for four trumpet player whose career, some felt, was waning.1 television appearances on the Mike Douglas Show in addition But on December 3, 1963, Louis Armstrong and the latest to maintaining a schedule of nightly stage performances; a incarnation of his All Stars entered a recording studio in new trombone player needed to be found quickly. In March, New York City to record two songs for Mickey Kapp’s Kapp Armstrong was treated at New York’s Beth Israel Hospital for Records. Armstrong had not made a recording in over two years acute swelling in his right leg.4 But the band’s trombone chair and Kapp was actually the fifth label that Armstrong’s manager, was filled and Armstrong got back on his feet. Ten more tracks Joe Glaser, had approached to make the recording. Kapp took a were recorded in Las Vegas on April 7, 9, and 11, 1964,5 and chance with Armstrong and an even bigger chance with a tune Trummy Young’s replacement was introduced on what became Glaser wanted recorded, the title song from a musical that had known as the Hello Dolly! album6 with the recording of not even made it to its Broadway opening, Hello Dolly!2 Armstrong’s own composition, “Someday (You’ll Be Sorry).” The release of Kapp’s “Hello Dolly!” single3 came on As he finished up the song’s second vocal chorus, Armstrong February 15, 1964, just a week after the Beatles’ now-legendary is heard setting up a solo from his new trombone player, performance on the Ed Sullivan Show (February 9), and it shouting, “. broken record . take it Chief, take it Chief, entered Billboard’s single chart at number 75, benefiting from take it Chief, take it Chief, TAKE IT BIG CHIEF!” the opening of Hello Dolly! at Broadway’s St. James Theater With the help of trombonist Russell “Big Chief” Moore, in New York a few weeks earlier on January 16. On May 9, the Hello Dolly! album rose to the number-one position on the unthinkable happened: Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly!” Billboard’s album chart on June 13 where it stayed for six pushed “Can’t Buy Me Love” out of Billboard’s number- weeks. Ironically, it was the original cast recording of Hello one single spot, making him the oldest performer to secure Dolly! that Armstrong and the All Stars knocked out of the top Billboard’s top single ranking. spot. “Big Chief” had made an impact and people were talking The surprising success of Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly!” about him. Again. Louis Armstrong’s All Stars: Eddie Shu, Louis Armstrong, Russell Moore, and Billy Kyle. Lambertville, New Jersey (summer 1964); photo by Jack Bradley. Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, Jack Bradley Collection. -18- International Trombone Association Journal / www.trombone.net International Trombone Association Journal / www.trombone.net -19- Take It, Big Chief he area around the city we know today as Phoenix, Arizona, many years earlier by Catholic and Presbyterian missionaries and was inhabited in ancient times by indigenous people English names were the norm for members of the Community at Tknown as the Huhugam, or, as archaeologists call them, the that time.11 Russell Moore joined his older brother, Clark Newton Hohokam (“those who have gone before”).7 One group, the Akimel (1898–1988), and sister, Florence Lee (1907–1954), at home; his O’odham (“River People”), lived in the area around Arizona’s younger brother, Everett Newton, was born eight years later. Two Gila River, successfully engaging in farming in the Sonoran other siblings, Agnes (1900–1917) and Emmaline Newton (born Desert climate due to the regular flooding of the land by the 1914–1924) died at young ages. river and development of an extensive irrigation system. Spanish Russell remembered being fascinated by music at an early age: colonists began having contact with these indigenous people by I’ve always been musical since first awakenings when I 1694 and they were dubbed “Pima.” This word was a corruption was about six years old when I used to go to an old man of the phrase that the Akimel O’odham would recognize today as by the name of S-komaḍ on the reservation. He was in his “pi maach,” meaning “I don’t know,” which first was spoken in nineties, and a bunch of us kids would bring different gifts response to the Spanish by their O’odham relatives to the south in like maybe a sack of beans, corn, tobacco, and we’d go Sonora, Mexico.8 over and listen to him sing the chants of the Pimas . And The complex history of the conquest of this land first by to this day, in all these years, I can still hear old S-komaḍ Spain, then Mexico, and finally the United States is beyond laying in his house on a blanket and treating us to his the scope of this article. However, the confinement of Native chants and his stories of Indian folklore. And that was my Americans to reservations consolidated those populations first awakening of music in my soul.12 in defined areas and dramatically changed their way of life. This process began for the Akimel O’odham in 1859 with the With no electricity on the reservation, radios and record players establishment of the first reservation in Arizona, the Gila River were unknown. Live music, whether in the form of homemade Indian Reservation (now the Gila River Indian Community). For pipes and flutes like those that Russell Moore made himself, or the these people, the change that had the greatest impact was the playing of the St.